The BBC yesterday formally apologised to Alex Salmond after receiving 120 complaints about the way Kirsty Wark handled a Newsnight interview with the First Minister.

It admitted the treatment of Mr Salmond had been "rude and dismissive" after viewers complained that Ms Wark was too aggressive towards him in the part of Thursday's programme on the Lockerbie dispute.

Complaints to the BBC and to The Herald's forum described the presenter's behaviour as "shameful" and "dreadful". Others suggested Ms Wark had shown political bias in the interview and pointed to her close friendship with Labour's Jack McCon-nell.

Ms Wark and her partner, Alan Clements, spent Hogmanay 2004 with Mr McConnell and his wife, Bridget, at their house in Majorca. The families also holidayed together at the villa in December 2002.

It later emerged that Ms Wark and her family had twice been overnight guests at Bute House, then Mr McConnell's official residence in Edinburgh.

One post on The Herald forum read: "Kirsty Wark let herself down badly. So did BBC Newsnight boss Peter Barron, letting Ms Wark, friend and fellow holiday companion of Jack McConnell, interview Alex Salmond in the first place. It had the look of bias; it had the tone of bias; it had the smell of bias. The interview was a disgrace. BBC Newsnight is usually much more on the ball."

Some viewers thought the problem had been compounded in the Newsnight Scotland segment which followed, when presenter Anne Mackenzie twice said Mr Salmond had declined to appear on the Scottish part of the programme.

Yesterday, the BBC confirmed it had apologised to Mr Salmond about the way he was cut off at the end of the interview, with Ms Wark saying "exactly" to the First Minister as the sound faded while he was still speaking from Edinburgh.

Peter Barron, editor of Newsnight, said: " We've had a lot of complaints about Kirsty's interview last night with Alex Salmond. Some questioned the premise of the interview, others thought that Kirsty's line of questioning was too aggressive and therefore discourteous. But all agreed that the way the interview ended was, to say the very least, unfortunate.

"The encounter was indeed intense and at times tetchy, but for most of the interview I don't think we strayed outside the boundaries of what viewers expect or find acceptable.

"In the last minute, however, that changed we cut off Mr Salmond in a way that came across as rude and dismissive. We have apologised to Mr Salmond for that."

Ms Wark was not available yesterday. A spokeswoman for Mr Salmond said: "The First Minister is happy to accept the BBC's apology."