Libya opens nuclear programmes to UN inspection

LIBYA has agreed to open its nuclear activities to pervasive inspection by the UN atomic agency as early as next week, a key step toward honouring a promise to scrap its nuclear weapons programme.

Libya's decision followed a meeting its delegation had on Saturday with Mohamed El Baradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The session came after Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi's surprise announcement on Friday that his country would give up nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.

Mr El Baradei said he would lead the first inspection mission, which he described as a positive step on the part of Libya "to rid itself of all programmes or activities that are relevant or could lead to the production of weapons of mass destruction."

"We will start as early as ... next week," Mr El Baradei said. He said he and senior experts would meet with Libyan government officials in the capital, Tripoli, to agree on how to carry out pervasive inspections, with actual inspection teams following shortly afterward.

Libya has admitted to nuclear fuel projects, including the possession of centrifuges and centrifuge parts used in uranium enrichment, a nuclear effort more advanced than previously thought. It also agreed to tell the IAEA about current nuclear programmes and to adhere to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

During Saturday's meeting, the Libyan delegation also agreed that it was in breach of its safeguard obligations and that it would sign an additional protocol to the Nonproliferation Treaty. That move gives IAEA a strong mandate for wide-ranging inspections on short notice.

Mr El Baradei confirmed yesterday that the Libyans were ready to sign that protocol. He described that concession as a "welcome step (that) gives us the authority to detect nuclear activity at a nascent stage the kind of activity that has been going on in Libya."

Mr El Baradei said the weapons research effort started with a programme to enrich uranium through spinning in centrifuges "sometime in the 80s (and) picked up steam in the 90s."

"It involved the importation of centrifuges, (other) equipment, natural uranium," he told reporters at IAEA headquarters in Vienna. Mr El Baradei said Libyan officials in Vienna told him the experiments did not progress to uranium enrichment a key step in creating nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile yesterday, Pakistan acknowledged that some scientists participating in its nuclear programme may have been involved in the proliferation of sensitive technology to other countries. The government was responding to suspicions that Pakistan has aided Libya, Iran or North Korea.

Pakistan denies it spread nuclear technology, but is investigating whether individual scientists acted without authorisation.