THE people of Lockerbie were praised for their dignity by First Minister Alex Salmond as they prepared to mark the 20th anniversary of the Pan Am bombing.

Mr Salmond paid tribute to the community where a series of events will be held on Sunday in memory of the 270 lives which were lost in the tragedy.

Speaking at First Minister's Questions, Mr Salmond told MSPs: "I know the chamber will want to join me in recalling that Sunday marks the 20th anniversary of the Lockerbie air disaster.

"The community in Lockerbie will be observing the anniversary with a dignified programme of events to mark the occasion. Our thoughts are with them and all those whose lives have been affected by this atrocity."

Mr Salmond's comments coincided with the latest stage in the appeal of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, who has always maintained that he was wrongly convicted of the 1988 bombing.

Megrahi's solicitor Tony Kelly said after yesterday's hearing at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh that the appointment of a special advocate to consider controversial secret documents had been confirmed.

Last month three judges denied his appeal to be freed from Greenock Prison pending an appeal against conviction after it emerged the 56-year-old former Libyan intelligence agent had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and that the disease had spread.

Lord Hamilton said the court was not persuaded the convicted bomber should be released on compassionate grounds as a result of the atrocity.

Although Megrahi could die from the disease he was not "suffering material pain or disability".

Dr Jim Swire, spokesman for British relatives who lost loved ones, criticised the refusal to grant Megrahi bail and said: "It has never been our goal to seek revenge.

"And the refusal of a return to his family for a dying man whose verdict is not even yet secure looks uncomfortably like either an aspect of revenge - or perhaps timidity."

Megrahi is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 27 years for the bombing of PanAm flight 103 in 1988.