UK official to skip US Senate session on Lockerbie

The Scottish minister who authorized the release of the Lockerbie bomber says he won't attend a U.S. Senate committee on the case because he has no new information to offer.

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said Friday he has "no information to provide" to the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee.

The committee is investigating claims oil giant BP may have lobbied Scotland to release Libyan Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, freed from jail last year on compassionate grounds.

Al-Megrahi was convicted of the 1988 bombing of a U.S. airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people, most of them Americans.

BP says it didn't attempt to intervene in al-Megrahi's release.

MacAskill said there was "no information that we can provide."