TEHRAN, Iran (AP):

Iran yesterday dismissed a United States (U.S.) federal judge's ruling that the Islamic Republic must pay US$2.65 billion to the families of the 241 U.S. service members killed in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut.

"The American judge's ruling is baseless. Americans have taken repeated measures contrary to legal principles. ... This ruling against Iran is politically motivated and the result of pressures," the official IRNA news agency quoted government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham as saying.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth described his ruling on Friday as the largest-ever such judgment by an American court against another country. It was the worst terrorist act against U.S. targets until the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Tehran has been blamed for supporting the militant group Hezbollah, which carried out the suicide bombing in Beirut.

Iran has denied responsibility for the attack. It did not respond to the six-year-old lawsuit and was represented only by an empty table in the U.S. federal courtroom.

Yesterday, Elham said a U.S. court was not in the position to issue such a ruling.

"Some U.S. courts, without listening to the other side's views and due to its unjustifiable and irrational links, issue verdicts against Iran that are not legally defendable," Elham was quoted by IRNA as saying.