A Libyan sought damages against NATO in a Belgian civil court on Wednesday, accusing the alliance of killing his wife and three children in an air strike, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Khaled Hemidi says his wife and children were killed in a bombing west of Tripoli on June 20 that had targetted his father, Khuwildi Hemidi, who is close to the regime of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi and escaped unharmed.

NATO said at the time that warplanes had struck a high-level command and control centre in Sorman, 70 kilometres (45 miles) from Tripoli.

The regime charged that 15 people, including three children, were killed, but NATO insisted that the target was of military nature and that it goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties.

Hemidi filed a lawsuit against NATO in Brussels on Wednesday over the deaths of this 34-year-old wife Safae, his two daughters, ages four and five, and his three-year-old son, his lawyer Ghislain Dubois told AFP

"The action is based on civil wrong due to NATO's violation of the UN mandate, under Resolution 1973, which was aimed at protecting civilians," Dubois said.

The lawsuit will be filed in a court in Brussels because NATO's headquarters is located in the Belgian capital. The first court hearing would take place seven to 10 days later, the lawyer said.

Dubois will seek an initial compensation of 100,000 euros for his client before seeking more, yet to be specified damages.

A NATO spokeswoman, Carmen Romero, said the alliance "took note" to the lawsuit and was acting within the mandate of the UN Security Council resolution that authorised the use of force to stop Kadhafi from crushing a rebellion.

"All NATO strikes have been made against legitimate military targets in full compliance with the relevant UN resolutions 1970 and 1973, and with great care to avoid unnecessary casualties to innocent civilians," she told AFP.

The Sorman bombing came after NATO admitted that one of its missiles went astray in a Tripoli bombing that the regime said killed nine civilians.

The Tripoli blunder was criticised by Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini who then called for a suspension of hostilities in Libya.

In another case, a Belgian court threw out a war crimes complaint against NATO which was filed by Kadhafi's daughter, Aisha, over regime charges that a bombing in April killed her daughter and the Libyan strongman's youngest son.

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