Lockerbie bomber's release criticised by US

The White House has said it is ''very disappointed'' by the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who has been released from prison on compassionate grounds.

Megrahi, who has terminal cancer, has served eight years of a life sentence for killing 270 people on Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988.

Many of the victims of disaster were American, and reaction from bereaved relatives has been hostile.

Daniel Sandford reports from Washington.