Britain has evidence that the Libyan leader, Col Muammar Gadafy, played a direct part in ordering the 1988 Lockerbie mid-air bombing of a Pan Am jet, according to yesterday's Sunday Times.
But the British newspaper said it was unable to publish full details of its evidence after the intervention of the British government's lawyer, who told the paper that its information "plainly came from a member of the intelligence community". If published, it could "be extremely damaging", the report quoted the Treasury Solicitor, Mr Roland Philips, as saying in a letter.
The Sunday Times said it had decided to accept a deal offered by the Treasury Solicitor so that the thrust of the story could be placed in the public domain.
The report quoted "a former senior intelligence officer" as saying: "We have known for a long time that Gadafy gave the order. It is a sham for him to pretend otherwise and it is an even bigger sham for the British government to let him off the hook."
The front-page report said Mr Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, "is prepared to rehabilitate Gadafy after the decision to hand over for trial two men accused of putting the bomb on Pan Am 103." It killed 270 people.
Mr Philips said that unless certain information was removed from the report he would seek an injunction banning its publication, the paper said.
The newspaper said that a British intelligence operation had "produced clear evidence of Gadafy's personal involvement in the bombing of Pan Am 103".
Meanwhile British Airways announced yesterday it would fly regular flights to the Libyan capital, Tripoli. This follows a softening of EU sanctions against Libya.
The South African President, Mr Nelson Mandela, sent a senior delegation to Libya yesterday to discuss opening an embassy in Tripoli and increasing trade.