THE FBI is investigating whether people pressing families of victims

of the Lockerbie bombing to accept a financial settlement are Libyan

agents, a US official said yesterday.

The State Department confirmed some families had been contacted by two

lawyers who offered a deal.

''The FBI is investigating whether they are agents of Libya and may

have violated US law or United Nations sanctions as a result,'' said the

official, who asked not to be identified.

NBC television reported on Wednesday that each family was being

pressed to accept $1m (#530,000) in a deal that would allow Colonel

Gaddafi to save face by turning over two suspects to a country

sympathetic to Libya.

The report showed film of men said to be working for Henry Kartshner,

identified only as an American agriculturist, offering a victim's family

$1m in a plan aimed at lifting US trade sanctions against Libya.

The men were identified as Val Miller, a lawyer, and C. McClain

Haddow, a former Reagan administration official.

Kartshner stands to ''make millions'' if the sanctions, imposed

against Libya until it turns over the suspects to Britain or the US, are

lifted, the report said.

NBC said Kartshner and the men met Libyan officials in Zurich to

determine the deal to offer each family $1m.

Meanwhile, a Briton campaigning for the bombers to be brought to

justice yesterday denounced the ''bribe''.

Dr Jim Swire, who lost a daughter in the disaster, was unaware of any

move ''to buy off British relatives'', but said even the most hard-up

would resist the offer.

He criticised any attempt to pervert the course of justice.

''It could not succeed with the British relatives, but I can't speak

for the American ones,'' he added.

A total of 270 people were killed when flight 103 was blown up over

Lockerbie in 1988.