David Cameron: Lockerbie bomber should have died in jail
David Cameron tried to defuse the row over BP's links to Libya today as he told the American public that the Lockerbie bomber "should have died in jail".
On the first day of his trip to meet Barack Obama in Washington, the Prime Minister told National Public Radio that the SNP-led Scottish government was to blame for the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi rather than the oil firm. President Obama was expected to raise the issue at this afternoon's talks, which include a one-to-one session in the Oval Office.
The pair were expected to discuss a plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by 2014, the aftermath of the BP oil disaster, and Mr Cameron's campaign to boost global free trade.
Before a meeting with US senators furious at the way Megrahi was freed, Mr Cameron said: "I will say to them that I agree that the decision to release al-Megrahi was wrong. I said it was wrong at the time. It was the Scottish government that took that decision. They took it after proper process and what they saw as the right, compassionate reasons. I just happen to think it was profoundly misguided.
"He was convicted of the biggest mass murder and in my view he should have died in jail. I said that very, very clearly at the time; that is my view today."
He added: "Of course BP has got to do everything necessary to cap the oil well, to clean up the spill, to pay compensation."
Mr Cameron also welcomed the Kabul conference's endorsement of the 2014 target for security handover in Afghanistan. He said: "I think it is realistic — there is a proper plan behind this ... where we are training up the Afghan army month after month and actually it is on target at the moment in terms of the numbers of troops that have been trained.
"It is not perfect by any manner of means, there is more that needs to be done but there is quite a lot of time to train up that Afghan army."
In a Wall Street Journal article Mr Cameron announced a more "hard-headed" style of relationship with the US, rejecting "blind loyalty".
The Prime Minister wants to be seen as less deferential towards the White House than Tony Blair or Gordon Brown.
Mr Cameron saved £200,000 of public cash by ditching a private jet to take him to America. He flew business class on a scheduled airline.
