THE Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing has claimed that new evidence in the case will be revealed in the next few months.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi made the claims during an interview at his home in Tripoli where he has been living since his release from Greenock prison in 2009.

Megrahi, who claims to be running out of medication for his terminal cancer, also said the West had "exaggerated his name" and that he had never harmed anyone in his life.

He said: "The facts will become clear one day and hopefully in the near future. In a few months from now, you will see new facts that will be announced.

"The West exaggerated my name. Please leave me alone. I only have a few more days, weeks or months."

However, last night there were conflicting reports of whether the translation of the word "exaggerate" was correct or not.

Megrahi, who had served as an intelligence agent during

the rule of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, denied any role in human rights abuses.

He added: "All my work was administrative. I never harmed Libyans, I didn't harm anyone. I've never harmed anyone in my life."

He went on: "I have a shortage of all my medicines. My doctor tells me to look for medicine like anyone else despite the agreement between us and Britain. I have four pills left.

"I want to die in my house, among my family."

Megrahi's claims of new evidence gave fresh hope to the families of the victims, who have been hoping that the change in power in Libya would lead to the truth about what happened.

Stephanie Bernstein, whose husband Michael was one of 270 victims of the atrocity, claimed that the statement was "very significant". She said: "It suggests that maybe he's willing to talk about what happened and who else was involved."

Kathleen Flynn, who lost her 21-year-old son John Patrick Flynn in the bombing, added that the one thing she never got from the trial was information on Gaddafi's involvement in the attack.

She said: "We went to the trial everyday and we saw all the evidence and he put the bomb in the plane – no ifs or buts about it.

"The only thing we never heard at the trial was that the bombing was ordered by Gaddafi and we hope that the new evidence he speaks about is going to come from people within the Gaddafi administration who are now willing to talk about it."

Professor Robert Black, one of the architects of the Lockerbie trial, said: "There's no way Megrahi would know about that.

"He's not part of the rebel regime."