The U.S. government advised Scottish ministers that the Lockerbie bomber’s release on compassionate grounds was ‘far preferable’ to his transfer back to a Libyan jail, it has emerged.

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond said that while Washington ‘didn’t want’ Megrahi to be freed from Scottish custody, they would rather see him released on account of his terminal cancer than under the prisoner transfer agreement between the UK and Libya.

The revelation prompted allegations of ‘double talk’ by the U.S. given its recent expressions of outrage at Megrahi’s release.