Under pressure

Brown is under pressure to clarify his government's role in the decision to free Abdel Baset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds on August 20.

The British government has admitted it didn't want the terminally ill al-Megrahi to die in a Scottish prison. But Brown has also maintained he did not pressure Scotland into releasing al-Megrahi in order to curry favor with Libya, a country which has Africa's biggest known oil reserves.

Libyan officials allegedly warned London that al-Megrahi's death in a Scottish prison would have "catastrophic effects for the relationship between Libya and Britain," according to Scottish government documents released this week. And Scottish leaders said they had received mixed messages from London on what assurances it had given to Libya and the United States.

Brown on defensive

Brown insists there was "no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double-dealing, no deal on oil, no attempt to instruct Scottish ministers, no private assurances by me to (Libyan leader) Colonel (Moammar) Gadhafi."

Al-Megrahi was given a hero's welcome when he returned to Libya last month. The decision to release al-Megrahi, who was convicted for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 above the Scottish town of Lockerbie, drew strong criticism from the United States. The bombing killed 270 people, many of them US citizens.

Brown has supported normalizing ties with Libya after it was largely shunned by the international community during much of the 1980s and 1990s.

British opposition leader David Cameron has called for an inquiry into the controversy, accusing Brown and the government of "catastrophic misjudgment."

th/Reuters/AFP/AP
Editor: Chuck Penfold