**The High Court in Edinburgh is set to meet to hear a bid by the Lockerbie bomber to drop his second appeal against conviction.**Leave of the court is required before the proceedings by Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi can be formally abandoned.
It comes as the Scottish Government considers his requests for either release or transfer to a Libyan jail.
The Foreign Office has now said it sees no “international legal obstacle” to either possibility.
In 1998, the UK and US governments had set out conditions for the trial of Megrahi at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands that if found guilty he would serve out his sentence in the UK.
Megrahi is not expected to be in court during the procedural hearing into the application to drop the appeal.
Life sentence
It emerged last week that the Libyan, who has terminal prostate cancer, had applied to withdraw his second appeal against conviction.
It prompted claims he had been put under pressure to make the move - a suggestion the Scottish Government has strenuously denied.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill is currently considering whether or not to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds or allow his transfer to a prison in Libya.
He is expected to reach a decision within the next two weeks.
The withdrawal of his appeal would remove an obstacle to Megrahi’s return to Libya in a prison transfer.
The 57-year-old is currently serving a life sentence with a minimum of 27 years after being convicted in 2001 of the 1988 bombing which killed 270 people.