UNITED States investigators are still keen to establish the veracity

of the claim by a Palestinian revolutionary that he, and not two

Libyans, carried out the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing.

Yesterday, the US State Department said it would pursue the confession

although, privately, Washington sources say the confession is not to be

trusted. However, their position varies from that of the Foreign Office

in London and the prosecuting authorities in Scotland, who have

indicated that the Western allies' policy of prosecuting the two Lybians

is still the only one they wish to pursue.

Three weeks ago, Youssef Shaaban, a member of the Abu Nidal

Revolutionary Council Faction, who is on trial for the murder of a

Jordanian diplomat, was reported to have confessed to the bombing of

PanAm flight 103 which killed all 259 people on board and 11 on the

ground.

Almost immediately, the situation was confused, first with claims that

Shaaban had been mis-quoted and then with a subsequent claim that he had

''confessed'' only under ''coercion and torture''.

In November, 1991, the US and Britain accused Libyans Abdel Basset Ali

Mohamed al-Megrahi and al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah of having carried out the

Lockerbie atrocity.

The indictments against the pair, who are alleged to be members of the

Lybian secret service, were issued by the Crown Office in Scotland. The

US and British governments, backed by the United Nations, have made

repeated, unsuccessful, demands for their extradition to stand trial in

Scotland.