THE US Senate has passed legislation which allows survivors and relatives of those killed in the September 11 attacks to file lawsuits seeking damages against the government of Saudi Arabia.

The legislation, known as the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA, passed in the Senate by unanimous voice vote on Tuesday.

If it passes the House of Representatives and is signed into law by US President Barack Obama, JASTA would allow lawsuits to proceed in federal court in New York as lawyers try to prove that the Saudis were involved in the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

The Saudis, who deny any involvement in 9/11, have threatened to sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets should the bill be signed.

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The New York Times reported Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir told US politicians last month that “Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $US750 billion ($A975 billion) in Treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts.”

The bill would take away immunity from foreign governments in cases “arising from a terrorist attack that kills an American on American soil.”

The Obama administration had lobbied Congress to block the passage of the bill and threatened to veto the legislation.

The news comes after American businessman Paul Salo, who now lives in Thailand, announced a $1.8 million plan to stage a dramatic recreation of the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York.

He wants to purchase a Boeing 747 for the sole purpose of putting it on autopilot and smashing it into the side of a vacant building in the countryside at 900km per hour.

He described the venture as an “important project” that will prove conspiracy theories about the attack “once and for all”.