The move follows three days of arguments after SNP First Minister Alex Salmond made an emergency statement to MSPs in the Scottish Parliament.

Mr Salmond told them he had protested to Prime Minister Tony Blair over the agreement, which he suggested could lead to Abdelbaset Ali al Megrahi - currently serving a life term in a Scottish jail - being transferred back to Libya.

The "memorandum of understanding", covering issues including the transfer of prisoners, was agreed by Libya and Britain when Mr Blair was in Tripoli at the end of May.

In the statement, on Thursday, Mr Salmond told Holyrood: "I have today written to the Prime Minister expressing my concern that it was felt appropriate for the UK Government to sign such a memorandum on matters clearly devolved to Scotland without any opportunity for this government and this Parliament to contribute."

However, Mr Salmond has been at pains to point out that he did not believe Mr Blair had deliberately snubbed Scotland by not consulting the country's law officers or ministers before the deal had been reached.

Instead, he argued it was a symptom of Mr Blair's style of Government.

And he said he believed prime minister in waiting Gordon Brown would have a different approach when he takes office at the end of this month.

Mr Salmond said: "My belief that the sort of style of Government we see, and it's illustrated by the Libyan issue, is a very personal thing to the current Prime Minister, he is the only prime minister in history who has pursued this style of what's been called 'sofa government'."

He added: "This is not a particular shut out of Scotland from information, this is a shut out of everybody apart from a very narrow inner circle."