BP lobbied with British Government ahead of Lockerbie bomber release

London, Jul 15 (ANI): British Petroleum admitted on Thursday that it had lobbied with the UK Government over a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) with Libya in late 2007 before the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.

BP was facing fresh scrutiny on Thursday into whether it was involved in the release of the Lockerbie bomber, The Telegraph reports.

"BP told the UK Government that we were concerned about the slow progress that was being made in concluding a Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Libya," BP said in a statement.

"We were aware that this could have a negative impact on UK commercial interests, including the ratification by the Libyan government of BP's exploration agreement," it added.

BP signed a 900 million pounds exploration agreement with Libya in May 2007, the same month that Britain and Libya inked a memorandum of understanding that paved the way for al-Megrahi's release from a Scottish prison.

Megrahi was the only person convicted over the 1988 bombing of a US airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.

BP denied claims that it had been involved in negotiations concerning the release of al-Megrahi.

The admission came just hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged to investigate allegations of BP's involvement in his release ahead of its planned new drilling in Libya. (ANI)