TRIPOLI: Libya appeared on Friday to be trying to downplay the return of the Lockerbie bomber, keeping him out of the public eye and making little official mention of him, amid outrage by families of the US victims and a warning by US President Barack Obama not to give him a hero's welcome.

Britain's foreign secretary on Friday denounced the hero's welcome the freed bomber received in Libya.

David Miliband told the BBC that the sight of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi's homecoming was deeply distressing.