THE Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing has been released from hospital following an emergency blood transfusion.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, who is terminally ill with prostate cancer, was taken to a private hospital in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Friday.

His brother, Abdel Hakim, said Megrahi had recovered quickly after a transfusion of 11 litres of blood, and now felt strong enough to return home. He said: "[My brother's] health is going from bad to worse, but he felt ready to go and his family took him home."

Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, was convicted in 2001 of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 as it flew to New York from London. It detonated over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people.

Megrahi, who has always denied involvement, was freed from Greenock prison in August 2009 on compassionate grounds after the Scottish Government was advised by experts that his cancer was terminal and it was likely he had only a few months left to live.

However, it is thought his life has been prolonged by treatment with the prostate cancer drug abiraterone acetate, which has a brand name Zytiga. Last month the drug was rejected for use on the NHS in Scotland by the Scottish Medicines Consortium. NICE, the equivalent body for the NHS in England and Wales, will rule on the drug in June.

Megrahi's release angered many relatives of the victims, and US politicians have been pressing for his extradition to the US, something Libya's ruling National Transitional Council has refused to do.