Amsterdam - Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who was convicted for the so-called Lockerbie disaster, is terminally ill with cancer and expected to die within "weeks or months," a Dutch documentary filmmaker told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa early Tuesday.

Libyan former intelligence agent al-Megrahi, 56, was sentenced for life imprisonment in 2001 for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.

A terrorist bomb on board the aircraft brought the plane down over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing some 270 people.

The Dutch documentary maker says he was given the information about al-Megrahi by "reliable sources close to a Libyan delegation."

The Libyan delegation, he says, is visiting London to formally request permission from British authorities for the former Libyan agent to die in his native country.

The Dutch documentary maker has been researching the Lockerbie bombing for several years.

His documentary, which he says will reveal new information about the bombing over the Scottish town, as well as the conviction of al- Megrahi and al-Amin Khalifa Fhima, is due to be the broadcast on European television networks within the next months.

Al-Megrahi has appealed his life sentence twice, most recently in September.

On October 15, a Scottish court ruled al-Megrahi was entitled to appeal his sentence. dpa