The son of Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi has accused relatives of the Lockerbie victims of being �very greedy� over compensation claims.

The son of Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi has accused relatives of the Lockerbie victims of being "very greedy" over compensation claims.

Saif al Islam al Gaddafi, seen by many observers as being groomed to become the next Libyan leader, makes the accusation in a documentary to be screened on Sunday.

Referring to relatives who sought compensation for the death of loved ones in Britain's worst terrorist attack, Mr Gaddafi tells BBC2's The Conspiracy Files: "I think they were very greedy and were trading with the blood of their sons and daughters and they were asking for more money and they were talking just about money. Money, money, money."

However, in a letter published in The Herald today, Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was one of the 270 people killed in the tragedy, says of the comments: "I just wish that the needs of the relatives, namely a thirst for the truth and for justice, would be attended to rather than an alleged hunger for money."

"Financial compensation' must remain in its inverted commas. So far as many relatives I know would say, we would gladly repay any compensation' money if we could have our loved ones back."

Mr Gaddafi also implies in the interview that Libyan citizens may not be responsible for the attack, which occurred just before Christmas 20 years ago, and explicitly states Libya only accepted responsibility because they wanted international sanctions to be lifted.

"I admit we played with the words," he said. "We had to. There was no other solution."

Initially, when asked if Libya accepted responsibility for the attack, Saif al Islam al Gaddafi says: "Well yes, we wrote a letter to the Security Council saying we are responsible for the acts of our employees or people. But it doesn't mean we did it in fact."

Dr Swire said yesterday: "From within Western culture, Saif al Gaddafi's comments will be found deeply offensive by some relatives, but I can see this as the Arab way of doing things.

"My reaction is that what we're looking at here is a negotiation in which the functions of international politics are driven by the norms of American law. The Libyans have achieved what they want and Western commerce has got what it wanted too.

"In this, many of us feel like pawns."

On December 21, 1988, a PanAm jet exploded over the town of Lockerbie en-route to New York.

All passengers and crew on board and 11 people on the ground were killed.

Abdelbaset al Megrahi was found guilty of mass murder and is serving a life sentence. Last year, the Scottish Crim-inal Cases Review Commission concluded the Libyan may have suffered a miscarriage of justice and granted him a second appeal, which is due to start early next year.