Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has acknowledged to a German diplomat that the country was involved in the Lockerbie bombing, it was claimed last night .
The claim in a German newspaper is based on a German government memo which referred to a terrorist role in the bombing.
According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, the memo recounts a report to US and German leaders, including president George W Bush in Washington, by Michael Steiner, chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's foreign policy adviser.
Mr Steiner ''reported about his talks with Gaddafi in Libya. The latter accepted that Libya was involved in terrorists acts (Lockerbie)'' according to the newspaper.
A German government spokesman declined to comment on the report to be published today.
The memo flies in the face of previous stances taken by Libya which has denied responsibility for the bombing.
Families of the victims have since challenged the Libyan leader to deliver the fresh evidence which he had claimed would prove the innocence of the man convicted of bombing PanAm flight 103.
In a much publicised speech in February, Gaddafi said the world had been deceived over the 1988 bombing which killed 270 people, but he failed to present the evidence he had promised.
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