国际英语新闻：British foreign secretary brands decision to release Lockerbie bomber "wrong and misguided"

Straw denied any involvement in the decision to release al- Megrahi, saying it was entirely a Scottish government decision.

"I had absolutely nothing to do with that decision. I saw no papers about it, and was not consulted about it," Straw said.

He continued: "Indeed I was on holiday at the time and only learnt about it from an item on the BBC News website ... It follows from this that I do not see how I could help your committee 'understand several questions still lingering from this decision' as I did not make it, nor have any other locus in it."

"You will therefore excuse me if I do not accept your committee 's kind invitation," he added.

Hague, in his letter, defended both the devolved Scottish government and the main British government from allegations that they had been influenced by BP in the decision to release al- Megrahi.

Hague wrote: "There is no evidence that corroborates in any way the allegation of BP's involvement in the Scottish Executive's entirely separate decision to release Mr. Megrahi on compassionate grounds in 2009, nor any suggestion that the Scottish executive decided to release him on compassionate grounds in order to facilitate oil deals for BP."

"None of our searches of UK Government material to date have produced any record of an attempt by BP to influence either the UK Government or the Scottish executive with regard to Mr. Megrahi's release in 2009," he added.

Britain and Libya had signed a Prisoner Transfer Agreement (PTA) in 2007 and the Scottish government had initially wanted to exclude al-Megrahi from this. Eventually, the main British government won the argument to include him in the PTA.

Hague wrote: "During the several months of discussion in 2007 about Libyan opposition to the possible exclusion clause in the PTA, there were a number of conversations between BP and the then UK Government ... BP had been made aware by the Libyans that failure to agree the PTA could have an impact on UK commercial interests, including the Libyan ratification of the BP exploration agreement signed in May 2007, and wished to bring this fact to the attention of the UK government."

"This was a perfectly normal and legitimate practice for a British company. It is the sort of exchange which occurs regularly around the world," he observed.

The U.S. Senate committee will hold its inquiry next Thursday. BP has suffered severe criticism in the United States since the explosion of one of its exploration oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 workers and led to large-scale pollution of the sea and U.S. coastline in the area.

The disaster became a major domestic political issue, with President Obama criticizing BP, and also overshadowed the bilateral talks earlier this week between Cameron and Obama.