The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, has confirmed that the British government told Libyan officials that it did not want the Lockerbie bomber to die in prison.

Mr Miliband said British policy was that it was not "actively" seeking Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's death in jail but that a decision on his freedom could only be taken by the Scottish government.

The Conservative leader, David Cameron, accused the government of a "catastrophic misjudgement" over the decision to release Megrahi. He said it had had damaged relations with Washington and called for an independent inquiry into the affair, "so that all the paperwork can be looked at and we can see what the government did in our name."