The British foreign office has strongly denied claims that the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was linked to trade agreements between Britain and Libya.
Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif is reported to have said that the decision to free Megrahi from a Scottish prison was tied to a deal between the UK and the oil-rich north African state.
However, the foreign office insisted that there was no deal between London and Libya in relation to Megrahi, and that his release on compassionate grounds was purely a matter for the Scottish authorities.
'There is no deal. All decisions relating to the Megrahi case have been exclusively for Scottish ministers, the crown office in Scotland, and the Scottish judicial authorities,' a spokesman said.
'No deal has been made between the UK government and the Libyan government in relation to Megrahi and any commercial interests in the country.'
Gaddafi meets Megrahi
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has been shown on television meeting Megrahi.
Mr Gaddafi was shown embracing Megrahi when the former intelligence agent arrived for the meeting.
Libyan news agency JANA said Mr Gaddafi thanked Britain's prime minister Gordon Brown and Queen Elizabeth for 'encouraging' Scottish authorities to release Megrahi.
Mr Gaddafi said: 'This step is in the interest of relations between the two countries ... and of the personal friendship between me and them and will be positively reflected for sure in all areas of cooperation between the two countries.'
Megrahi himself has revealed he will produce evidence proving his innocence before he dies from prostate cancer.
In an interview with The Times, he said: 'There was a miscarriage of justice. My message to the British and Scottish communities is that I will put out the evidence and ask them to be the jury.' He declined to elaborate.
270 people died when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded above the Scottish village in December 1988.
The deepening controversy of Megrahi's release follows condemnation of the bomber's triumphant homecoming on both sides of the Atlantic.
Crowds waving Libyan and Scottish flags were waiting at Tripoli airport after terminally-ill Megrahi flew back from Glasgow on Thursday.
He was released by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill on compassionate grounds after serving less than eight years of his life sentence.
British foreign secretary David Miliband said the welcome scenes were 'deeply upsetting', and warned the way the Libyan government acted over the next few days would be 'very significant' in determining how the rest of the world treated the former pariah state.
US president Barack Obama described the triumphant Tripoli welcome awarded to Megrahi as 'highly objectionable'.
