WASHINGTON, Friday.

A STATE Department official denied today that US Government personnel,

benefiting from a Government warning, cancelled flights on the Pan

American airliner blown up over Lockerbie last December.

Mr Clayton McManaway, associate coordinator at the department's

counter-terrorism office, said the conclusion had been backed up by an

extensive analysis of Pan Am's reservation, cancellation and ''no-show''

records of Flight 103.

Allegations that officials with inside knowledge cancelled flights

followed disclosure that the US embassy in Moscow posted a Federal

Aviation Administration bulletin reporting that a bomb threat against US

planes flying from Frankfurt to the United States had been received in

Helsinki.

Mr McManaway told a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing the

posting was made in contravention of Government policy and that FAA

bulletins were meant for US airlines so they could take

counter-measures.

He said 31 US Government personnel were on board Flight 103 and were

among the 259 killed when the Boeing 747 exploded in midair on December

21. Eleven people died on the ground in Lockerbie.

He said the flight, which had a capacity of 400, had never been sold

out and that only 17 passengers were ''no-shows'' -- well within the

percentage expected on such a flight.--Reuter.