The previous UK government did "all it could" to facilitate the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, a report on the case has said.
Sir Gus O'Donnell, the country's most senior civil servant, said there was an "underlying desire" to see Megrahi released before he died.
But his report concluded that it was made clear to Libya that the final decision was up to Scottish ministers.
And there was no evidence of UK pressure on the Holyrood government.
Reacting to the report, the Scottish government claimed UK ministers changed their position on Megrahi's due to "commercial considerations, including lobbying by BP" in Libya.
Most of the 270 people who died when Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988 were Americans.
Megrahi, the only person convicted of the atrocity, was released by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill on compassionate grounds.
The Libyan, terminally ill with prostate cancer, was freed from a Scottish prison to return home in August 2009 after doctors suggested he had three months to live, although he is still alive.