Libya snap checks could start next week

Snap checks of Libya's nuclear sites could begin as soon as next week after Libya accepted UN inspections to convince the world it is giving up its nuclear weapons programme, UN and Libyan officials said yesterday.

Muammar Gaddafi's oil-rich state, long on the official US list of sponsors of terrorism, said last week it was abandoning plans to build an atomic bomb and other banned weapons. Senior ministers said yesterday that Libya would sign an additional UN protocol allowing snap checks of nuclear sites.

Foreign Minister Mohamed Abderrhmane Chalgam said inspections could begin soon. "We just need to discuss technical procedures."

The head of the Vienna-based UN nuclear agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said yesterday he would travel to Libya next week to assess its nuclear weapons programme. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) boss said he wanted to "kick-start a process of verification" of Libya's arms programme, and some inspections could start next week.

He would notify the IAEA's governing board about Libya's undeclared activities, which included a uranium enrichment programme that could have produced bomb-grade material.

The importance Libya attaches to the inspection issue became clear when Algeria said yesterday an Arab Maghreb Union summit due this week had been postponed at Libya's request, partly because Tripoli was preoccupied with talks with Western governments. Libya is due to take over the AMU leadership.

Libya's surprise moves could prompt the lifting of US sanctions and the return of US oil companies. They mark an about-face for the mercurial Gaddafi, who seized power 34 years ago in this North African desert nation of 5.5 million.

For much of his rule, Libya has been under US or UN sanctions, accused of sponsoring or carrying out terrorist acts ranging from bombing airliners to training foreign guerillas.

UN sanctions were lifted this year after Libya agreed to pay victims of the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing, which killed 270 people. But Washington kept its sanctions in place.

France is pressing Libya to raise compensation for families of 170 victims of the bombing of a French airliner in 1989.

Analysts said a cooperative Libya could provide the West with useful intelligence about arms dealers, militants and spies in and beyond the Middle East from its days of buying banned weapons technology and arming guerilla groups.

Britain said Libya may have been prompted to abandon its illegal arms programmes by observing the fate of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, ousted in April by US and British forces.

US intelligence officials said Gaddafi's motivation could have been the Iraq war, a desire to end isolation, or concerns about domestic threats to his own rule.

Libyan officials noted the benefits that lifting sanctions would bring to their economy and oil industry. "We will try to convince US oil companies to return," said Chalgam, saying Libya produces 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and wants to double output to three million in 2020.

Libyan Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem urged Israel, widely believed to have nuclear weapons, to follow Libya's lead.

He admitted Libya had in the past armed foreign guerillas. "We have supported at certain times what we call freedom fighters," he said. "We are against terrorism."