Minister rejects oil-for-prisoner allegation

       Britain denied on Sunday any link between trade with Libya and the Lockerbie bomber's release after a report suggested London was swayed by an oil deal into making him eligible for a prison transfer home.
       The Sunday Times said the government decided two years ago that it was "in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom" to ensure Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi could at some point be sent back to Libya.
       According to letters obtained by the newspaper, Justice Secretary Jack Straw dropped an attempt in 2007 to exclude Megrahi from a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya because of "wider negotiations" with Tripoli.
       His decision came after discussions between Libya and BP over a massive oil exploration deal became bogged down, the paper said. The deal was ratified by Libya soon afterwards.
       In response to the report, Mr Straw acknowledged that the prisoner transfer agreement was part of efforts to bring Libya back into the international fold after it abandoned its nuclear weapons programme.
       "What is totally untrue is that any part of these negotiations with the Libyans was that at some stage Mr Megrahi would be released," the justice secretary told Sky News television.
       He said that under the agreement,the Scottish government had a veto over any prisoner transfer - and noted that Edinburgh had in fact rejected such an option for Megrahi in favour of a compassionate release earlier this month.
       "The implication that, somehow or other, we have done some backdoor deal in order to release Mr Megrahi is simply nonsense," Mr Straw added to the BBC. Terminally-ill Megrahi was freed from a Scottish prison after serving just eight years for the 1988 bombing of a PanAm jet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, which killed 270 people.
       London insists the decision to release Megrahi was made solely by the semiautonomous Scottish authorities.
       Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond also denied the decision was based on commercial deals. Speculation, however,continues about Britain's stance, particularly as the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, Seif al-Islam, has said Megrahi "was always on the negotiating table" in oil and gas deals.