Libya nuclear components headed for US

Acting swiftly to ensure Libya's pledge to give up nuclear weapons is implemented, the Bush administration may bring to the United States as early as next week centrifuges and nuclear material at the heart of Tripoli's programme, senior US officials say.

Documents and drawings from the Libyan program arrived in Washington on Friday. Centrifuges, uranium hexafluoride and other nuclear-related equipment "are in the next round, probably next week," one official told Reuters. Most, if not all, of the nuclear components will go to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the US Department of Energy's largest science and energy laboratory.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi pledged on December 19 to abandon efforts to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in a surprise deal with old adversaries Washington and London.

But a dispute erupted between the Americans and the International Atomic Energy Agency - the UN watchdog that usually has the job of overseeing dismantling of weapons of mass destruction programmes - over the IAEA role in Libya. Last Monday, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said he had agreed with US and British officials that his agency would verify Libya's dismantling by US and British experts.

But US officials insisted the IAEA role will be secondary. US, British and IAEA inspectors were in Libya this week beginning the process of removing the weapons. Some of Tripoli's chemical arms may be brought to the United States for analysis.

However, for safety reasons, most of the material will be destroyed on site in Libya, officials said.

Libya denies it has a biological weapons programme but US officials want to verify the claim with scientists. If biological capability is discovered, that too would probably be destroyed on site in Libya, officials said.

On Friday, the IAEA said nuclear arms designs were found in Libya and put under UN seal before transport to Washington. The IAEA has said a Libyan bomb was years away, while US and British officials said it was more imminent.

US, British and IAEA experts agreed, however, that Libya launched a serious and aggressive campaign to acquire the capability and know-how to enrich uranium for use in weapons.

Libya's August 2003 admission of responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and its December vow to abandon WMD have set the stage for a possible end to US economic sanctions. Lifting sanctions would let US oil companies resume work in Libya, abandoned when sanctions forced them out in 1986.