Gaddafi in Lockerbie family talks

Col Gaddafi described his meeting with the Lockerbie familes as "friendly"

The Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has held a meeting with relatives of the victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

In an upcoming interview with CNN, Col Gaddafi said he had offered his "condolences" during the meeting.

Libya has already formally accepted responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 and paid reparations.

But many US families were angered by the Libyan welcome given to the man convicted for the attack after he was released on compassionate grounds.

Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, was freed from a Scottish prison last month.

'Cordial'

During the pre-recorded interview with CNN, which is to be broadcast on Sunday, Col Gaddafi told the US network that terrorism was "a common enemy to all of us".

He compared the Lockerbie bombing to the US bombing raid on Libya in 1986, which killed around 40 people including Col Gaddafi's adopted daughter, Hannah.

He [Col Gaddafi] said he was sorry for the loss Lisa Gibson Lockerbie victim's relative

"Whether it is Lockerbie or whether it is the 1986 raid against Libya, we are all families... terror in all its forms is a common enemy to all of us," the Libyan leader said, in a publicly released excerpt.

One of the victim's relatives who met Col Gaddafi said "he was very friendly and cordial to us", the Associated Press reports.

Lisa Gibson, a lawyer from Colorado whose brother died in the Pan Am attack, said she and another victim's relative took part in the meeting at the Libyan mission to the UN on Wednesday.

"He [Col Gaddafi] said he was sorry for the loss, but we didn't go into any details," Ms Gibson was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

"Honestly, I think he was touched by us being there," Ms Gibson said.

Ms Gibson told AP she had given the Libyan leader a pen and a card, in which she told him she had been praying for him.

She also said she had travelled to Libya three times, and had helped raise money for humanitarian projects there.

On Wednesday, Col Gaddafi's addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York - in what was his first appearance there.