US wants Lockerbie bomber to stay

The US state department has said it is standing by an international agreement requiring the Lockerbie bomber to serve his sentence in Scotland.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Volker told BBC Scotland he expected the original deal to be "followed through".

The UK and Libya recently struck an agreement over prisoner transfers.

Scottish ministers have been promised a veto on any bid by Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to return to Libya.

'Justice served'

There has been concern that the convicted bomber may be able to mount a legal challenge to serve the remainder of his sentence in Libya because of the UK's general agreement on transfers with Colonel Gaddafi's regime.

Mr Volker told BBC Scotland: "We negotiated these arrangements to bring the perpetrators to justice. This was part of the settlement that was done at the time and we think it important that justice be served.

"Those are the arrangements and it's important that they be followed through and that justice be served for the memory of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing."

Megrahi is serving life for killing 270 people in the 1988 bombing.

He was convicted in 2001 of blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

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