LONDON: US officials sought Tuesday to calm the row over the release of the Lockerbie bomber, saying the government was "looking to move on" and stressing the British-US relationship was still solid.

A US State Department spokesman said it was "not looking to punish" anyone over the Scottish government's decision to free Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi from prison, saying "there is no tit for tat here."

"I don't think it's a matter of forgiving anybody," spokesman Ian Kelly told BBC's Newsnight programme. "I think at this point we're looking to move on."

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill released Megrahi on compassionate grounds because he is dying of prostate cancer, sparking anger from the US administration and American relatives of victims of the atrocity.

The former Libyan agent is the only person convicted of the murder of 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988.

Shortly after the decision on August 20, US President Barack Obama described it as a "mistake," and later condemned the jubilant reception that the bomber received back in Tripoli as "highly objectionable."

Obama this month told British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a telephone call of his "disappointment" over the release.

Brown has insisted that the decision was entirely a matter for the semi-autonomous Scottish government, and defended Britain against accusations of deal making with oil-rich Libya over his release.

The decision also sparked a push in the United States for a consumer boycott of Scottish goods.

The new US ambassador to Britain reiterated Tuesday the Obama administration's view that the release was "not appropriate", but insisted the move was "not going to sink the special relationship in any measure."

"I don't think people will stop playing golf in Scotland and stop drinking Scotch whisky. I'm certainly not going to stop doing so," ambassador Louis Susman told the Financial Times in an interview.

State Department spokesman Kelly said Scotland and the United States were "very close allies" and shared an "important relationship".

"I think all along we recognised that Mr MacAskill had the right to do what he did. We're looking to continue the very important co-operation that we have with the United Kingdom and Scotland."

"We have very deep and abiding ties with Scotland," he added.

Their comments come as Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi was set to attend this week's UN General Assembly in New York.

Megrahi, 57, was admitted to hospital in Tripoli at the start of September, less than a fortnight after his release when he was given less than three months to live