WASHINGTON : A US federal judge on Friday ordered Iran to pay US$2.65 billion to families of 241 soldiers killed in the 1983 bombing of a Marine barracks in Beirut, calling his ruling a warning that attacks on US citizens will not be tolerated.

Judge Royce Lamberth said the award "may be the largest ever entered by a court of the United States against a foreign nation".

Expressing admiration for the fallen soldiers and sympathy for their families, Lamberth issued his decision after considering claims by 1,000 family members and a small number of survivors.

"The court hopes that this extremely sizeable judgment will serve to aid in the healing process for these plaintiffs, and simultaneously sound an alarm to the defendants that their unlawful attacks on our citizens will not be tolerated," he wrote in his ruling from a federal court in Washington DC.

A previous court in 2003 held that Iran provided financial and logistical help for the lethal 1983 attack carried out by the militant Shiite group Hezbollah.

Although the bombing occurred nearly 24 years ago, "it is clear from testimony presented to this court...that intense suffering experienced on that day has had a tragically lasting effect on the plaintiffs who have brought this action," Lamberth wrote.

The judge indicated that the US administration had at no point warned the court that the case could interfere with US foreign policy interests.

US troops were deployed in Lebanon in 1983 as part of a UN-sponsored multinational peacekeeping force in hopes of containing the country's civil war.

On October 23, 1983, a 19-tonne explosives-laden truck rammed through barricades and detonated in front of the US barracks in Beirut, demolishing the building in a massive explosion.

The attack was the "most deadly state-sponsored terrorist attack made against American citizens" until the attacks of September 11, 2001, the judge said.

As part of the same wave of attacks, a French barracks was also bombed, killing 58 French paratroopers.

Families in the case welcomed the ruling.

"The families were very gratified by the judge's decision," spokesman Steven Hofman told AFP. "Their effort is to seek accountability for what occurred and against state sponsors of terrorism."

The Iranian regime has dismissed the 2003 ruling holding it liable for the bombing, saying the decision was "provoked by the Zionists."

While Iran denies responsibility for the bombing, it played an instrumental role in the founding of Hezbollah in the 1980s, which was initially dedicated to driving out Israeli forces and now advocates the destruction of Israel.

The families will face an uphill battle trying to collect the money, which they hope to secure through the seizure of Iranian assets around the world.

The spokesman said the families are lobbying the US Congress for legislation that would make it easier to chase down and seize Iranian assets.

In Iran, a hardline group has celebrated those who carried out the bombing as "martyrs" and in 2004 gathered at a monument dedicated to the attack.

The 1.5 metres (five feet) high monument at the Behesteh Zahra cemetery outside Tehran - where many soldiers of the Iran-Iraq war are buried - features sculpted images of US troops picking up dead bodies.

The group, which calls itself the "Committee for the Glorification of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement," says it has no ties to Iran's clerical regime. - AFP/ch