UNITED NATIONS, Aug 18: France has made a tacit threat to veto the British-sponsored resolution to end the UN sanctions on Libya and take the final step toward closing the book on the 1988 bombing of Pan American Flight 103.

The French government is upset with the lucrative $2.7 billion deal Libya struck with the United States and Britain in exchange for lifting of sanctions when it had received only $31 million in a deal on the 1989 bombing of UTA-French Airline in which 170 people died.

On Friday, British ambassador Emyr Jones Parry agreed to introduce a draft resolution to end UN sanctions on Libya after its UN envoy, Ahmed Own, sent a letter to the 15-nation council Friday renouncing terrorism and taking blame for the 270 dead from the bombing of the jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland.

After 15 years of arduous negotiations, London and Washington have told the Security Council they want the sanctions quickly lifted now that Libya has assumed responsibility for the attack and agreed to pay up to $2.7 billion in compensation — as much as $10 million to each victim’s family.

However, France, according to diplomats here, has threatened to use its veto power to block the resolution because Libya agreed years ago to a far less generous deal for the 170 dead from the 1989 bombing of a French UTA airliner over Niger. Tripoli turned over a total of $36 million in 1999.

On Monday, diplomats here said that the French diplomats declined to confirm whether it would use its veto and said it was still talking to Libya to obtain more money for the families of the UTA victims, 65 of whom were French.

“Important progress has been made in these negotiations, which we would like to lead as rapidly as possible to an agreement on fair damages in relation to those that will go to the families of the victims of the Lockerbie attack,” the French foreign ministry said.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin also talked over the weekend with his US, British and German counterparts, the ministry said.

But Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Abderrhmane Chalgam has ruled out paying more, and diplomats questioned whether Paris would risk a fresh confrontation with the United States and Britain at the United Nations since a veto would also prevent the Lockerbie families from getting their money.

“That file is completely closed,” Chalgam told CNN Saturday. “We had an agreement with the French and it is completely settled. Any kind of extortion or blackmailing, we’re not going to accept that.”

The UN Security Council was scheduled to meet late on Monday afternoon to discuss the Libyan sanctions.