Senior officials from the justice department in Libya are reported to have declared the Lockerbie bombing matter as case closed that it is “over” and “something of the past”.

British police had been due to reopen inquiries in Libya into the bomb on Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland in 1988 that killed 270 people. The American government was also said to be interested in looking again, but the Libyan government said it is a closed case and it wants to move forward.

The Libyan deputy justice minister Hameda al-Magery has been reported telling the British daily, the Telegraph: “Britain and America are asking us to reopen this file. But this is something of the past. This is over.

“We want to move forward to build a new future and not to look back at Gaddafi's black history. This case was closed and both UK and US governments agreed to this. They had their compensation.”

Libya's Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani, reportedly said the matter had been “settled with the Gaddafi regime”. The families of the Lockerbie victims received £1.43bn in compensation from the Libyan government in 2003.

“I am trying to work on the current situation rather than dig into the past,” he said.

Only one person has ever been convicted - Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was jailed in 2001. He was released from prison by the Scottish government in 2009 on compassionate grounds after he was diagnosed with cancer. He always protested his innocence. He died last year.