Scottish police investigating the Lockerbie bombing are to visit Libya.
David Cameron announced that officers from the Dumfries and Galloway force had been granted permission to visit the country at a joint press conference in Tripoli with his Libyan counterpart Ali Zeidan.
The Prime Minister said: “I am delighted that the Dumfries and Galloway Policeteam will be able to visit your country to look into the issues around theLockerbie bombing.”
The officers are expected to travel to Libya in March. It will be the first time police have been allowed to visit as part of the probe.
The move follows months of behind-the-scenes talks. Mr Cameron pointed out that police investigating the murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher had been able to come toTripoli three times since the revolution.
That would have been “unthinkable” when Muammar Gaddafi was in power, he added.
On December 21 1988, 270 people were killed when Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie.
In 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of mass murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was released eight years later on compassionate grounds and he died in May last year.
In December last year the Libyan administration said it was preparing to release all files relating to the bombing.
A formal request was sent to the Libyan government requesting access to the country for police and prosecutors involved in the bombing, in February last year.
A spokesman for Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary said: “It’s the first time since the fall of the previous Libyan regime that officers will have the opportunity to make further inquiries in the country.”
The bombing of the plane, travelling from London to New York four days before Christmas, killed all 259 people on board.
Eleven residents of the Dumfries and Galloway town also died after it crashed down on homes in Britain’s biggest terrorist atrocity.
After protracted international pressure, Megrahi was put on trial under Scots law at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands. He was found guilty in 2001 of mass murder and was ordered to serve a minimum of 27 years behind bars.
Despite claims that he could not have worked alone, and the lingering suspicion by some that he was innocent, Megrahi was the only man ever convicted over the attack.
He was freed from prison having served nearly eight years of his sentence after he dropped his second appeal against conviction at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and died in May last year at his home in Tripoli, aged 59.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill’s decision to allow him to return home to Libya to die sparked international condemnation from some relatives of victims and politicians, who had demanded he be returned to jail.
Scotland’s top law officer the Lord Advocate, Frank Mulholland QC, and the Chief Constable of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, Pat Shearer, met UK families of the Lockerbie victims in London last year after the formal request was sent to Libya to access the country.
The Libyan National Transitional Council had previously confirmed to the UK Government that it would assist the ongoing criminal investigation.