Edinburgh: Sky News and BBC television are reporting that Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Al Megrahi is to be released on compassionate grounds but the Scottish official in charge says no decision has yet been made.

Al Megrahi, a former Libyan secret service agent, is serving a life sentence for the bombing of Pan Am 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988. The attack killed 270 people _ most of them Americans.

Al Megrahi is terminally ill with cancer.

Sky and BBC said Al Megrahi would be released imminently, but the final decision lies with Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill.

MacAskill told Scottish Television Wednesday evening that no decision has yet been made and that a number of options are under consideration.

American and British relatives of the Lockerbie bombing victims have sharply disagreed with Al Megrahi's imminent release.

The Reverend John Mosey, from Worcestershire, England, who lost his 19-year-old daughter, Helga, believes it is time to show Al Megrahi "some Christian compassion" and let him go home.

But Susan Cohen of Cape May Court House, New Jersey, whose 20-year-old daughter Theodora died in the attack, said the possibility that Al Megrahi would be freed was "simply horrible."

Al Megrahi's legal team has sought his release on compassionate grounds in the past, and it has made a separate request that he be allowed to serve the rest of his sentence in a Libyan jail.

The BBC said Al Megrahi's release was influenced by the hope that he could be back on Libyan soil in time for Ramadan next week.