The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, yesterday rejected fresh calls for two Libyan suspects in the Lockerbie bombing to be tried in a neutral country but under Scottish law.
He invited nations with concerns about whether a trial in Scotland would be fair to study the country's criminal justice system at first hand, and send observers to monitor any eventual hearing.
Mr Cook, attending the Commonwealth summit in Edinburgh, spoke before meeting relatives of the 270 victims of the bombing on board the Pan-Am flight, including Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed and who acts as a spokesman for British relatives of the dead.
Earlier, Dr Swire said he was "more optimistic than for years" of progress towards a trial of the two suspects. Libya has said it will not release the men except for trial in a neutral country.
On Saturday, President Mandela, who came to Edinburgh via Libya where he met Col Gadafy, claimed justice would not be seen to be done if the suspects were tried in Scotland, because Britain could not be "complainant, prosecutor and judge".
Speaking on BBC 1's Breakfast with Frost, Mr Cook agreed that a trial in a neutral country would be better than none at all in Scotland, the US or London. "But it would be better to have the trial in Scotland, before a Scottish court and a Scottish jury," he said. "This search for a neutral country misses the point. I am absolutely confident that a Scottish court would provide an impartial trial."
Mr Cook said Mr Mandela had a long-term relationship with Libya, going back to the days of Col Gadafy's support for his struggle against apartheid.
Britain's position had been explained to Mr Mandela before he went, to be conveyed to Libya, said Mr Cook: "What happened at Lockerbie was an act of mass murder. It is vital, not only for the relatives of those who died, but for the respect for law, that the two people who have been indicted should be brought to justice."