NEW YORK, Oct 7 (AFP) - World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein has settled a bitter dispute with Ground Zero master planner Daniel Libeskind, after the architect slapped him with a lawsuit for salary non-payment.
Under the settlement, announced Wednesday, Libeskind will receive 370,000 dollars for his work on the Freedom Tower, the skyscraper centerpiece of the plan to rebuild the trade center site after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The figure was less than half the 850,000 dollars demanded in Libeskind's July lawsuit.
The two men have been at loggerheads ever since Libeskind's design for rebuilding Ground Zero was chosen following an international competition in February 2003.
Since then, Silverstein has managed to increasingly sideline Libeskind, by bringing in his own architects who have substantially modified the original design plan.
Libeskind's lawsuit was something of a public relations disaster, coming just a week after the Freedom Tower's cornerstone was laid at the site amid great fanfare.
Silverstein's lawyers had balked at the sum demanded by Libeskind, saying he was unable to provide timesheets or other documentation that would justify the pay out.
Silverstein had criticised Libeskind's master plan from the beginning, saying it did not allow for enough office space to replace what was lost when the trade center's twin towers collapsed.
The settlement between the two men was reached with the help of a court-appointed mediator.
"I am pleased that the mediation has produced a resolution to this dispute and that both of us again can focus completely on the redevelopment of the World Trade Center," Silverstein said in a statement.
Libeskind said he was "pleased that we have put these issues behind us so that we can move forward without distraction on the critical tasks ahead."