Lockerbie families petition for inquiry

Relatives of victims of the Lockerbie bombing handed in a petition at 10 Downing Street yesterday, the fourth anniversary of the explosion, calling for a full public inquiry into the disaster.

Dr Jim Swire, spokesman for UK Families-Flight 103, said relatives still did not know why Pan Am flight 103 was blown up. 'We are repeatedly frustrated in our continuing quest for truth and justice,' the petition said. All 259 people on the plane were killed, and 11 on the ground, when the bomb exploded on 21 December, 1988, above the Scottish borders town.

Meanwhile, US president-elect Bill Clinton has pledged to press the United Nations to extend sanctions against Libya unless two Libyans suspected of planting the bomb are handed over for trial. In a letter to the family of a victim, he also said that all questions about Syrian and Iranian involvement will be 'fully answered'.