PM breaks silence on bomber release

Gordon Brown has spoken publicly on the return of the Lockerbie bomber to Libya - but refused to express an opinion.

The Prime Minister condemned the hero's welcome given to Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi in Libya but insisted the British Government had "no role" in the decision to free him.

Opposition politicians accused Mr Brown of a "failure of leadership" and a "masterclass in evasion" and renewed demands for him to make clear whether he supported the decision.

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said he would table Parliamentary questions to establish what dealings London had with Libya in the run-up to the release. The PM was forced into his first public comments since last week's release when he faced reporters after talks at 10 Downing Street with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Asked whether he thought it was the right or wrong decision, Mr Brown said his first thoughts had been with the families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing.

"I was both angry and I was repulsed by the reception that a convicted bomber guilty of a huge terrorist crime received on his return to Libya," he added.

The PM said when he met the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi earlier this year he told him the bomber's release was not his decision.

"I made it absolutely clear to him that we had no role in making the decision about Megrahi's future," he said. "Because it was a quasi-judicial matter, because it was a matter legislated for by the Scottish Parliament and not by us, it was a matter over which we could not interfere and had no control over the final outcome."

He dismissed suggestions the decision by the Scottish Justice Secretary would undermine Britain's relationship with the US and its other allies against terrorism.

"I don't think what has happened will undermine our relationships with Israel, or the United States, or other countries who engage with us in the fight against terrorism," he said. "I made it absolutely clear that whatever the decision that is made on a quasi-judicial basis by the Scottish Parliament, our determination to fight terrorism is clear."