WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama today called the elaborate Libyan homecoming for the freed Lockerbie bomber "highly objectionable."

Obama commented before departing the White House for a weekend at Camp David, Md.

His chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, earlier had denounced the homecoming scene as "outrageous and disgusting."

Al-Megrahi is dying of prostate cancer. Scotland released him Thursday on compassionate grounds after he had served eight years of a life sentence for the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, including 189 Americans.

Obama had said Thursday that al-Megrahi should not receive a hero's welcome in Libya and should be placed under house arrest.