Lockerbie bomber: A tabloid Tea Party at Mr Cameron's expense

IF there was any doubt in Mr Cameron's mind about the feeling in the US over the release of Megrahi, the headline in New York's Daily Post made it crystal clear.

On top of a Union Jack and a photo of the Tory leader looking perturbed was the banner headline: "British Bull. Stop ducking Mr Cameron, we demand answers about Lockerbie bomb scandal."

In the paper, commentator Joshua Greenman wrote: "British Prime Minister David Cameron aspires to greatness and is capable of it. But standing with President Obama, Cameron did just about everything he could to sidestep a full accounting of how Megrahi got freed from prison last August."

Mr Cameron's promise to review documents about the case - and his criticism of the Scottish Government decision to grant Megrahi early release - are already earning him respect in the United States. As the Prime Minister posed for numerous photo opportunities with Mr Obama, there was talk of the "special relationship" between Britain and America being rekindled.

ABC News observed: "It was not quite the Tony Blair-Bill Clinton love-fest of 1997, but President Obama and the newly minted British Prime Minister, David Cameron, appeared game to do everything they could to take some of the recent chill out of the relationship between their countries."

Writing in the New York Times, Helene Cooper observed: "After 10 weeks in office, Mr Cameron, who met with President Obama in Washington on Tuesday, has emerged as one of the most activist prime ministers in modern times, rivaling (sic] in some respects even Margaret Thatcher, the 'Iron Lady' who as the Conservative leader in the 1980s attacked unions and government bloat while privatizing national industries and vigorously pursuing free-market policies."