The US government and US Congress leaders announced they have agreed a package, with Libya, which will see US citizens compensated for injury and loss, in attacks sponsored by Libya in the 1980s and early 90s.

These incidents include IRA bombings and shootings, in which Americans were caught up.

But it was confirmed the settlement does not cover those UK/Northern Ireland victims who have been pursuing damages through the US courts.

If passed by Congress and the Senate, as expected, the deal could end any chance of victims from the Province ever being compensated for their loss by Libya.

US lawyers Motley Rice, representing both Americans and people from Northern Ireland (including the victims of the Enniskillen, Teebane and Shankill bombings) were incensed.

In a letter to the Democratic Party's leader in Congress, Senator Richard J Durbin – viewed by the News Letter – the law firm's senior partner Ron Motley wrote: "What next? Immunity for Osama Bin Laden?"

If the Democrats back the Libyan Resolution Claims Act, it would be on their conscience for evermore.

He added, in a statement, that Ulster's IRA victims were being "thrown to the wolves" by the US administration.

And he said it was a betrayal of historic US-UK relationships and of the principles underpinning the War On Terror, to allow Colonel Gaddafi away with his role in the terrorist murder and mayhem foisted upon the United States' British allies.

Victims' group FAIR accused of the Bush administration, and US politicians who backed the Bill, of "trading in Ulster victims' blood for oil" – a clear reference to the fact that the opening up of the lucrative Libyan oilfields to Stateside companies is a key driver behind the agreement.

If cleared by Congress and the Senate, Colonel Gaddafi's regime would settle hundreds of millions of dollars of compensation in civil actions such as the IRA victims' case, the Berlin disco bombing of 1986 and the downing of Flight UTA 172 over Congo in 1989, as well as finalising all payouts in the Lockerbie bombing.

In exchange for the money, Libya would be given immunity from any further attempts to sue it in the American courts and regain full diplomatic and economic status.

This would allow US oil companies to negotiate hundreds of billions of dollars worth of contracts, to drill the state's oilfields.