Salmond renews calls for leaders' summit

ALEX Salmond, the First Minister, yesterday called on Gordon Brownto set up a "council of the isles" style meeting between Westminsterand the devolved governments to avoid rows such as the "Gaddafigate"affair.

Last week, the Executive and UK government came to blows over anagreement between Tony Blair and Colonel Muammar al-Gadaffi, which MrSalmond said could lead to the transfer of the Lockerbie bomberAbdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to his home country of Libya.

The claim led to an angry statement to the Scottish Parliament byMr Salmond, even though the Libyan, who is held in a Scottish prison,is the responsibility of the Executive. Westminster continues to denythat Megrahi was part of the deal with Libya. But Mr Salmondyesterday said this was not true.

The father of a Lockerbie victim also accused Downing Street of"pure spin" in claiming Megrahi was not part of the agreement, whichfollows a multi-million pound British oil development in Libya.

Mr Salmond called on Mr Brown, who is expected to bring inconstitutional reform if he becomes prime minister, to reinvigorate asystem of joint ministerial committees that allow the devolvedgovernments to thrash out foreign policy as well as other reservedissues. Mr Salmond said he has the backing of the devolvedgovernments in Wales and Northern Ireland.

The row over Libyan policy is the culmination of a series ofepisodes where Westminster has been accused of failing to consult theExecutive - despite a 1999 agreement to tell the devolved governmentsabout any policy which involves them.

The latest incident arose after Executive officials spotted aLibyan article on the internet about a "memorandum of understanding"with Britain, which led Mr Salmond to complain to the Prime Minister.

Downing Street continues to insist that no agreement was reachedon Megrahi. But yesterday, a number of newspapers said sources closeto both Britain and Libya confirmed the issue had been discussed andthat Mr Blair ignored advice by failing to inform the Executive.

Mr Salmond accused Downing Street of spin in claiming theagreement was just a draft and did not involve prison transfer - orMegrahi - and compared the behaviour to the withholding ofinformation over the Iraq war. "I think you would have to behopelessly naive to believe any of them were true," he said.

Dr Jim Swire, the father of Flora Swire, who died in the bombing,said No 10 had failed to notify relatives of developments since thetalks. "Such cavalier disregard for the relatives' 'need to know'rubs salt in the wound of bereavement," he said.

There was no immediate response to Mr Salmond's call from MrBrown's camp last night.