Absolutely wrong to free Lockerbie bomber says Hillary Clinton

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The US secretary of state issued a last-ditch plea to keep Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi in jail amid reports that he is due to be released tomorrow.

Mrs Clinton said: "We are still encouraging the Scottish authorities not to do so and we hope that they will not." Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, dropped his appeal against conviction yesterday amid mounting speculation he could be moved to Libya within days on compassionate grounds.

It also emerged today that Prince Andrew may have discussed the case with Colonel Gaddafi. The Duke of York flew to Libya and met its leader at least three times in the past year as Britain's special trade representative.

The reports fuel suspicions that the prince played a behind the scenes role in smoothing the path for the release from jail of Megrahi.

Gordon Brown was also accused of rushing through the ratification of a treaty with Tripoli as part of a British push to protect oil interests in Libya.

Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice secretary, is to decide on the fate of Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence agent who is serving a life sentence after being convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people in 1988.

Mrs Clinton, who has already phoned Mr MacAskill to say Megrahi should serve out his sentence in Scotland, said: "It is absolutely wrong to release someone who has been imprisoned based on the evidence about his involvement in such a horrendous crime." British relatives' spokesman Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora, criticised Mrs Clinton's intervention as the "intervention of ignorance, a voice from the previous regime". He believes there is "highly credible evidence" which casts doubt on the Lockerbie verdict.

Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond said "there will be no consideration of international power politics or anything else" in the decision of the justice secretary.