Washington  - US President Barack Obama said Scotland's decision to release on Thursday a Libyan man convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people was a "mistake."

"That was a mistake," Obama said in brief remarks on the subject during a radio interview.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has also objected to the freeing of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, 57. Scottish authorities released him on compassionate grounds following his diagnosis with terminal prostate cancer. He departed Britain on a plane en route to Libya so he can spend the remainder of his life with his family.

Clinton and other US official had urged British and Scottish authorities to not free al-Megrahi.

Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 for his role in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and received life imprisonment. There were 189 Americans killed in the mid-air bombing of the flight. (dpa)