Cameron asks for Brown's view on freed bomber

Conservative leader David Cameron has written to Gordon Brown calling on him to make clear whether he believes the decision to free Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds was "right or wrong".

Meanwhile the BBC reported that Britain was considering canceling a visit to Libya next month by Prince Andrew, who has visited the country several times in his role as a British trade ambassador. Andrew's office said a visit for next month was in the planning stages and that Buckingham Palace was taking advice from the Foreign Office. The Foreign Office could not confirm the visit would be cancelled.

Mr Cameron said that while the move had been widely condemned across the world, including by US president Barack Obama, it was "curious" that Mr Brown had not expressed his views.

"We are entitled to know what you and your ministers have said to the Libyan authorities on this matter, and to the Scottish Justice Secretary," he wrote.

"Above all, I believe that the public are entitled to know what you think of the decision to release Megrahi, and whether you consider it was right or wrong.

"I hope you will now take the opportunity to make your own view clear."

Yesterday Mr Cameron described the move to release the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 as "a very bad decision" and "the product of some completely nonsensical thinking".