Salmond writes to senators

Scotland's First Minister has written to US senators as the row over the release of the Lockerbie bomber continues.

In a letter to John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Alex Salmond made clear that the Scottish Government made the decision to free Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds and had received no representations from BP on the matter.

The First Minister said the decision was made with "integrity" and following a "clear legal process".

Libyan Megrahi is the only man to have been convicted of the Lockerbie atrocity which killed 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 on December 21, 1988.

He was released from a Scottish prison last August, having been given three months to live, but is still alive and living with his family in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

David Cameron's first visit to Washington as Prime Minister has been overshadowed by the row over his release, with US senators suspicious that oil giant BP may have had a hand in the affair.