TRIPOLI, Jan 4: Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanim said on Sunday there was no justification for the United States to keep sanctions in place after Tripoli's move to abandon secret weapons programmes.

"There is no justification to keep them," Ghanim told AFP, adding that Libya had undertaken many steps to improve its relations with the United States after years of international isolation.

Libya was under international sanctions since 1992 over the bombing of PanAm flight 103, a US airliner, over the Scottish town of Lockerbie that killed 270 people in December 1988.

The United Nations lifted its embargo in September after Tripoli agreed to pay 2.7 billion dollars in compensation and accept responsibility for the bombing, but US sanctions have remained in place.

In an interview with the New York Times on Friday, Ghanim urged Washington to lift its sanctions by May 12, the deadline for Tripoli to complete the compensation payments to victims' families.

He said the United States should act quickly to reward Libya for its decision last month to dismantle weapons of mass destruction programmes and allow international checks of its nuclear facilities.

Libya so far has paid four million dollars to each family of the Lockerbie victims. Under the terms of the agreement, it may forgo paying the outstanding compensation payments if US sanctions are not lifted by May 12.

"The agreement says that eight months after the signing, if American sanctions are not removed, then the additional six million for each family of victims will not be paid," Ghanim told the newspaper.-AFP