Colonel Muammar �Gaddafi personally urged Gordon Brown to allow the repatriation of the man convicted of the Lockerbie �bombing as the two leaders met for the first time at the G8 summit yesterday.

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi personally urged Gordon Brown to allow the repatriation of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing as the two leaders met for the first time at the G8 summit yesterday.

The two got together for 40 minutes in one of the many meeting rooms on the L'Aquila site.

The Libyan leader raised the issue of his countryman, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi as part of the good-natured meeting.

A Downing Street spokesman said there was "a short exchange" about Megrahi.

"Col Gaddafi said that you know there is this person we want returned," he said. "He reiterated his government's long-standing position that they would like to see Megrahi back in Libya."

"The Prime Minister set out the simple facts - that this was a matter for the Scottish Government. He said he knew that this was an issue for the Libyans but that it was a matter for the Scottish courts.

"It was not his responsibility and he could not take the decision. Anyway, aside from the appeal, he said this was entirely a matter for the Scottish Government."

Col Gaddafi, attending the summit as chairman of the African Union, nodded and "took note" of Mr Brown's response but did not pursue the matter further.

Megrahi, 57, is currently appealing his 27-year sentence through the Scottish courts. He is suffering from terminal prostate cancer. The appeal hearing is not due to conclude until next year, raising the prospect that he could die before the verdict.

At the meeting, the Prime Minister raised two issues - the police investigation into WPC Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot dead while policing a protest outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984, and the case of five-year-old Nadia Fawzi, who was abducted and taken to Libya in 2007 by her father.

The Libyans have accepted responsibility for WPC Fletcher's death and paid compensation, but they have been unco-operative in terms of allowing access to witnesses in the ongoing investigation. Mr Brown said he wanted the Libyan Government to help "facilitate" the police. Col Gaddafi was said to have "taken the point".

On the issue of Nadia Fawzi, whose mother is Sarah Taylor from Wigan, the spokesman said Mr Brown made clear the UK's desire to see the girl returned home. "Col Gaddafi undertook to see what he could do as soon as possible," he said.

Asked if there was a suggestion of a deal being struck over the Megrahi case and those of WPC Fletcher and Nadir Fawzi, the spokesman insisted there was not.

The two leaders met in one of many small rooms in the converted Army barracks that make up the summit site. Flanked by the flags of Britain and Libya, each leader, seated in an armchair, had three officials with a single interpreter sitting behind them.

They began by discussing nuclear non-proliferation. While no invitation list has yet been drawn up for the nuclear summit in Washington next spring, Mr Brown has suggested as many as 30 nations could ber there, and Libya might be one of the countries attending.

The issue of oil was also raised and Mr Brown suggested Libya, as an oil producer, had an important role to play.