Families of Trade Centre dead could get £2.7m

Families of the Britons killed in the destruction of the World Trade Centre on 11 September could receive up to $4m (£2.7m) in compensation from the US government.

The detailed terms of the offer were made to about 90 relatives of the 67 British victims of the atrocity during a private meeting with a senior US lawyer in central London yesterday.

Kenneth Feinberg, an official with the State Department, said families would receive an average $1.8m, but only if they waived all their rights to sue the US government, the airlines or the World Trade Centre's owners.

Tom Clarke, a spokesman for the September 11 UK Families Support Group, welcomed the offer but predicted that some families would turn down the deal, which is the same as that offered to US relatives. "We have got 18 months to decide whether to sign up," he said.

Mr Feinberg said the exact sums the US was offering ranged from about $265,000 to $4m, based on whether the dead were insured, and the economic loss suffered by their death. If life insurance had been claimed, the average award would fall to $900,000.

He expected the offer to annoy some relatives, but denied that they were being "railroaded" into taking it.