Libya declared a stockpile of deadly mustard gas to a global disarmament body yesterday, part of its bid to normalise relations with the West by abandoning its weapons of mass destruction programme.
Libya reported stockpiles of mustard gas and precursors for the production of sarin and other nerve gas in a formal declaration to The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the arms control body said.
A Libyan official handed over more than a dozen folders with details about Libya's chemical weapons arsenal. It referred to one chemical weapons production site, two storage facilities and stockpiles of more than 20 tonnes of mustard gas, the OPCW said.
"This is good for Libya, the region and the international community since it strengthens this multilateral disarmament regime and represents a tangible step towards the ultimate elimination of these weapons of mass destruction," OPCW Director-General Rogelio Pfirter said.
Libya announced it would abandon any efforts to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in December and has allowed inspectors to search its weapons sites.
Libya, which joined the OPCW last month, is one of 160 states to sign up to a global chemical weapons ban enforced by the OPCW. It has already monitored the destruction in Libya of more than 3,300 bomb casings designed to carry chemical agents.
Libya last month started destroying its chemical weapons in a bid to win back the confidence of the United States and Europe after agreeing to pay damages over the 1988 Pan Am 103 plane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
US officials said on Wednesday that US Assistant Secretary of State William Burns was considering a visit to Libya this month in what diplomats believe would be the highest-level US visit in more than three decades.
The visit could also signal further progress in dismantling US economic sanctions imposed on Libya over the last quarter century that, among other things, have barred US oil companies from working there for more than a decade.
The European Commission has also said the EU was moving towards lifting commercial sanctions on Tripoli after its decision to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction programme.