By Ian MacKenzie

EDINBURGH, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Scotland's top judge said on Friday he hoped a full appeal by former Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi against his conviction for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing could get under way next spring.

Lord Hamilton, sitting with two other appeal court judges in the High Court in Edinburgh said during a two-day procedural hearing that he wanted to press ahead with the appeal, "hopefully in the spring".

Al-Megrahi is serving a life sentence in Scotland for the bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet flying from London to New York over the Scottish town of Lockerbie that killed 270 people, including 189 Americans.

His defence lawyer Maggie Scott said she hoped the first stage of the appeal could open in April, with a second stage in July. She anticipated the appeal process was likely to run for three months.

The 56-year-old Libyan, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, was convicted in 2001 at a special Scottish court in the Netherlands. An initial appeal was rejected in 2002.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission said last year Megrahi was entitled to a further appeal as he might have been the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Earlier this month, Lord Hamilton rejected a plea for bail on humanitarian grounds to allow him to join his family in a Glasgow house.

The case will break new ground in Scottish law, which is separate from the legal process in England, over secret documents believed to contain information on the timer used in the aircraft bomb.

The documents have been cited as crucial to the appeal but the British government in London has refused to release them in open court because their disclosure would result in "real harm to the UK national security and international relations".

London has insisted the documents cannot even be seen by the defence, and may only be viewed by a special counsel with full security vetting in closed court on behalf of the defence.

A legal source said this was the first time the concept of a special counsel under such circumstances had been proposed in Scotland, although it is routine in England, particularly in terrorism and immigration cases. (Editing by Giles Elgood)

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