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Questions over release of Libyan threaten to overshadow first official US visit as Clinton calls for review of decision

David Cameron has agreed to meet four US senators who have been calling for an inquiry into how BP lobbied the British government for a prisoner transfer agreement ahead of the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

The British embassy had initially said Cameron's two-day schedule in Washington was too crowded to meet the senators, but on arriving in the US capital last night the prime minister rapidly changed his mind, saying he wished to show respect to the families of the Lockerbie victims.

Fresh advice suggested that a rejection of the meeting might overshadow Cameron's first formal bilateral talks with Barack Obama today.

The change of heart came as it was revealed that Hillary Clinton has asked the British government to review the decision to release Abelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent.

In her reply to a letter from the senators, the US secretary of state said she had asked both her opposite number, William Hague, and the Scottish executive "to review again the underlying facts and circumstances leading to the release of [Abdelbaset] al-Megrahi and to consider any new information that has come to light since his release".

"That Megrahi is living out his remaining days outside of Scottish custody is an affront to the victims' families, the memories of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing, and to all of those who worked tirelessly to ensure justice was served," she wrote.

Before the visit, Cameron stressed that he never agreed with the release of Megrahi by the Scottish government, saying it was completely wrong.

The call to see Cameron arose from the decision by the senate foreign relations committee to hold hearings on 29 July over the circumstances surrounding the release last August of Megrahi. The Libyan had served eight years of a life sentence for his role in the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, which killed 270 people, mostly Americans.

Democratic senators Charles Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez wrote to Cameron yesterday asking to meet him to discuss the case.

The senators said they hoped to discuss "what we can all do to provide greater transparency into the circumstances surrounding the release, address the injustice and ensure that a similar mistake is not repeated".

Specifically, the senators have been demanding to know what role BP played in lobbying for a prisoner transfer agreement that Britain and Libya concluded in December 2007. The senators have said they want to explore possible links between Megrahi's release and BP's eagerness to win Libyan ratification of an offshore oil deal company officials have said could be worth $20bn (£13bn).

Cameron, speaking on US national public radio this morning, said proper processes had followed when Megrahi had been released by the Scottish government. But he added: "I agree the decision to release him was wrong and I said it was wrong at the time. It was profoundly misguided â€" he was convicted of the biggest mass murder in British history and in my view he should have died in jail. I said that very clearly at the time and that is my view now."

Cameron also said that the decision to release Megrahi was not accepted by BP - it was a decision taken by Scottish ministers.

He added that he was sure BP would do everything necessary to cap the oil well, clear up the spill and pay compensation. "I have spoken to BP and they know they want to do that and they will."

In an unexpected twist David Miliband, the foreign secretary at the time, also criticised the release of Megrahi. He told the Glasgow Herald today: "It was clearly wrong because it was done on the basis he had less than three months to live and it's now 11 months on.

"The decision was made in accordance with our constitution and so it was a decision for the Scottish minister to make.

"Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds and, as I understand it, that depends on him having less than three months to live, so something has gone badly wrong."

Miliband acknowledges the Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill made his decision in good faith .

In a Commons statement in October, Miliband pointed out that British interests "would be damaged, perhaps badly, if Megrahi were to die in a Scottish prison rather than Libya".

Miliband admitted that there had been a national interest in signing the transfer agreement. There had never been an explicit statement that the Megrahi release would flow from the agreement, but few doubted that it would apply to him. With Megrahi in a Scottish jail, the Scottish nationalist government rejected the transfer agreement on the grounds that the then prime minister, Tony Blair, had done a dirty deal in the desert with the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

In a BBC television interview yesterday, Cameron said he had strongly opposed the bomber's release at the time. "As leader of the opposition, I couldn't have been more clear that I thought the decision to release Megrahi was completely and utterly wrong," he said.

With regard to BP 's role, he said: "I do not know that BP I am not responsible for BP .."

British sources stressed that it was unlikely that any British figure would be asked to give evidence to the senate inquiry, but there is concern that it will become another stick with which to beat the oil company already under fire over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP has insisted that its lobbying was limited to the transfer agreement, and did not include pressure for Megrahi's release.

Libyan officials, including a son of Gaddafi, have said Libya made clear to Britain that if Megrahi was not included in the transfer agreement, lucrative oil deals for UK companies would not be approved.

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