US News

Bam-Cam terror rift

WASHINGTON — In their first White House meeting, British Prime Minister David Cameron and President Obama sternly condemned Scotland’s release of the Lockerbie bomber — but disagreed over whether to further investigate the case.

“My administration expressed very clearly our objections prior to the decision being made and subsequent to the decision being made,” Obama told reporters yesterday with Cameron at his side.

“So we welcome any additional information that will give us insights and a better understanding of why the decision was made.”

Cameron said he shared Obama’s disappointment about the decision, but dismissed calls from the White House and others for the British and Scottish governments to further investigate last year’s release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who is now free in Libya.

Calling it the “biggest mass murder in British history,” Cameron said he would cooperate with any outside inquiries into the springing of Megrahi, but added that his government is done investigating it. The Libyan agent helped bomb Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270 people.

“I don’t need an inquiry to tell me what was a bad decision,” Cameron said. “It was a bad decision.”

He and Obama discussed the matter privately at the White House yesterday amid new questions about whether BP — now drawing international scorn over the Gulf oil spill — had lobbied the British government to release the terrorist in hopes of gaining access to Libyan oil fields.

The British leader also met with the four senators from New York and New Jersey for about 45 minutes last night. They pressed him for further investigation.

After the meeting, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said Cameron reiterated to them that he would cooperate with a probe.

Any attempts by BP to lobby the government to release the Lockerbie terrorist “is an issue for BP and an issue that they should explain themselves,” said Cameron.

He added that he doubted that lobbying by BP would have swayed the government’s decision.

Cameron also stuck up for the embattled company, even as he called the oil spill a “catastrophe” for the environment.

“Let us not confuse the oil spill with the Libyan bomber,” he said, adding, “BP is an important company to both the British and the American economies. Thousands of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic depend on it.”

churt@nypost.com