By David Stringer
London - Britain's prime minister criticised the decision to free Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi from jail last year, saying on Monday that the move had been "completely and utterly wrong".
But while David Cameron told the BBC he had opposed the decision to return the cancer-stricken prisoner to Libya on compassionate grounds in August, his office seemed to rule out a government inquiry into whether lobbying from oil company BP helped pave the way of al-Megrahi's release.
"As leader of opposition, I couldn't have been more clear that I thought the decision to release al-Megrahi was completely and utterly wrong," Cameron told the BBC before leaving on Tuesday on his first visit as British leader to the United States, where he is expected to face questioning about the case.
In fact, Cameron's political party did more than just condemn the former Libyan intelligence agent's release. In the weeks following, Britain's Conservatives called for an inquiry into whether trade considerations played any role in the decision.
The party has changed tack, however, since taking control in May of Britain's government in a coalition. Cameron's Downing Street office said a government-commissioned inquiry was "not currently under consideration".
Cameron emphasised that the final decision to release al-Megrahi was made by Scotland's government, which holds some limited powers within the United Kingdom, and not by the previous British government headed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Al-Megrahi served eight years of a life sentence for the December 21, 1988, bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people on board, most of them Americans, and 11 people on the ground. - Sapa-AP