The long-running legal battle between US civil rights icon Rosa Parks and the hip-hop duo Outkast, over the band's unauthorised use of her name, may be drawing to a close, a Parks advisor said on Tuesday.

Gregory Reed, an attorney for Parks (91) said the parties have agreed to conduct settlement talks with a mediator, beginning early in 2005.

Parks' legal representatives have filed two lawsuits against record companies and bookstores, seeking billions of dollars for the 1998 song 'Rosa Parks', which made oblique reference to Parks' historic challenge to the segregation of 1950s America.

The line "Ah ha, hush that fuss, everybody move to the back of the bus," evokes Parks' refusal to give up her seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. Her defiance touched off a 381-day boycott which historians say marked the beginning of the civil rights movement.

The suits, the latest of which seeks $5-billion in damages, were set to go to trial in August.

The row has dragged on since 1999, when the first suit was filed, and raised questions about the motives of Parks' closest advisors.

All in the family

Some of Parks' relatives ? she has 13 nieces and nephews ? have accused Reed and another aide of using their aunt's name in the lawsuits for financial gain.

The family said that if Parks were not mentally impaired, she would not mind the use of her name in the song. They also said their aunt, who is reportedly suffering from dementia, is probably unaware of the lawsuits.

They have also expressed concern about their aunt's finances and whether she is being properly cared for.

It recently emerged that Parks faced eviction from her Detroit apartment in 2002 because of late payments, and that a Detroit Baptist church had been paying Parks' rent for most of the past year.

In October, her landlords, Riverfront Associates, stepped in and said the 91-year-old could remain in her downtown apartment rent-free for the rest of her natural life.