RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – A Brazilian family said  they will return a 9-year-old boy at the centre of a  cross-border custody battle to his American father by today,  ending a legal saga that strained ties between the countries.

The legal battle over Sean Goldman sparked tensions between  the United States and Brazil, and reached a crescendo with a  threat in Washington to hold up the approval of billions of  dollars of trade benefits to the South American nation.

Brazil’s top judge ruled late on Tuesday that David Goldman  should be reunited with his son, backing a decision made last  week by a federal court.

Sean’s Brazilian family said on Wednesday that it would not  appeal the ruling and would hand over Sean to the U.S.  consulate in Rio de Janeiro by this morning, which would  allow father and son to be reunited for Christmas.

Goldman has been fighting to bring his son home since 2004  when Bruna Bianchi, his then-wife and Sean’s mother, brought  the boy to her native Brazil and then divorced Goldman. She  died last year.

Goldman and the U.S. government say Sean’s case is clearly  one of international child abduction under the Hague Convention  on child protection that both countries signed.

Goldman, who flew to Rio de Janeiro last week flanked by a  congressman from his home state of New Jersey, was not   available for comment yesterday. He has only seen Sean in  brief visits to Brazil since 2004.

“I was with David when he got the word from his attorneys.  He cracked a great big smile and he’s very happy,” U.S.  Representative Chris Smith told reporters late on Tuesday.

Bianchi’s family and her second husband have fought to keep  Sean in Brazil, saying he has settled in the country and does  not want to go back to the United States.

“Sean is very sad because he doesn’t want to go,” the boy’s  maternal grandmother Silvana Bianchi told reporters.

“A child isn’t a package that you can send from one hour to  the next. He will have big trauma,” she added, saying that  Brazil’s economic interests had won out over Sean’s own  wishes.

In response to the Supreme Court ruling, the U.S. Senate  promptly passed a trade bill late on Tuesday to extend several  billion dollars worth of duty-free benefits on some Brazilian  exports that New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg had blocked in  protest over the Goldman case.

Tuesday night’s decision reinstated a federal court order  that the boy be returned to his father within 48 hours.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had called on  Brazil to allow Sean to return with his father.