Gaddafi hugs Lockerbie bomber and thanks Britain

By Salah Sarrar and Matt Falloon

TRIPOLI/LONDON (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi hugged the convicted Lockerbie bomber and promised more cooperation with Britain in gratitude for his release, while London and Washington condemned his "hero's welcome" home.

Meeting Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and his family late on Friday, Gaddafi thanked British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Queen Elizabeth for "encouraging" Scotland to release the dying prisoner from a Scottish jail, Libyan news agency JANA reported.

After receiving a warm embrace from Gaddafi, Megrahi bent forward and kissed the leader's hand, TV images showed.

"This step is in the interest of relations between the two countries ... and of the personal friendship between me and them and will be positively reflected for sure in all areas of cooperation between the two countries," the Libyan leader said.

Gaddafi's comments drew a flat denial from Britain that Megrahi's release was in any way linked to business deals with Libya, which has Africa's largest proven oil reserves. Britain said all responsibility for his release rested with Scotland, which runs its own judicial affairs.

"There is no deal -- all decisions relating to Megrahi's case have been exclusively for Scottish ministers, the Crown Office in Scotland and the Scottish judicial authorities," a spokesman for the Foreign Office said.

"No deal has been made between the UK government and Libya in relation to Megrahi and any commercial interests."

Scotland's government on Thursday released Megrahi from a life sentence for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland because he has terminal prostate cancer. The attack killed 270 people, most of them Americans.

"At this hour, I want to send a message to our friends in Scotland, the Scottish National Party and the first minister of Scotland, to congratulate them for their bravery," JANA quoted Gaddafi as saying.

"Despite the unacceptable and illogical pressures against them, they took this humanitarian and brave decision."

More than 1,000 young Libyans gathered at an airport in Tripoli on Thursday to welcome Megrahi home, cheering and waving national flags, images that angered Washington and London.

WAITING TO DIE

Megrahi promised in an interview with Britain's Times newspaper published on Saturday that he would present new evidence before he died exonerating him of the bombing.

He dismissed the international furor over his release, saying President Barack Obama should know he would not be doing anything apart from going to hospital and waiting to die. Doctors say he may have less than three months to live.

"My message to the British and Scottish communities is that I will put out the evidence (to exonerate me) and ask them to be the jury," Megrahi, sentenced in 2001, said without elaborating.