Western Team Said to Be in Libya on Antiweapons Mission
By PATRICK E. TYLER
ONDON, Jan. 19 — British and American weapons experts have returned to Libya and within weeks could be dismantling, destroying and removing technology and materials related to Libya's once secret programs to develop nuclear and other illicit weapons, a senior Bush administration official said today.
Plans are also being laid by Libyan chemical weapons scientists to incinerate tons of mustard gas agent that was manufactured to fill chemical bombs, the official said. Missile programs and biological research efforts are still under scrutiny, but experts hope to develop plans to shut them down permanently in the weeks ahead.
The United States and Britain have not decided how to evacuate any highly enriched uranium and the centrifuge machines designed to separate it from natural uranium in the manufacture of the first Libyan nuclear bomb, a project that was in its early stages when Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi announced on Dec. 19 that he would abandon it. The senior official said the illicit materials would most likely be shipped to a secure facility in Britain or the United States.
In Vienna, American and British officials met with Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency, and reached an agreement under which the United Nations agency will verify the destruction and removal work in the weeks and months ahead, a spokesman for the agency said.
However, the work of destroying or dispatching illicit weapons will not be performed by inspectors from the international body, as it was in Iraq, Western officials said. Instead, it will be performed by American and British experts from intelligence agencies and from the United States Department of Energy and the national nuclear laboratories.
American and British weapons experts have made two previous trips to Libya, including one in December during which they given a tour of the country's arsenal, which reportedly includes mustard gas, a World War I-vintage chemical weapon, and materials for making nerve gas and missiles, the latter from North Korea.
In Vienna, Dr. ElBaradei met with the American undersecretary of state for arms control, John R. Bolton, and a senior British disarmament official, William Ehrman. After the meeting, the three officials met with reporters but did not make reference to the American and British team that has already arrived in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. The head of the team, which consists of about a dozen experts, was identified by Western officials as Donald A. Mahley, the State Departments special negotiator for chemical and biological arms control issues working under Mr. Bolton.
Dr. ElBaradei said his agency's role was "very clear — that we need to do the verification," adding, "A good part of the program needs to be eliminated, it needs to be moved out, and we clearly need the British and American support with logistics."
For his part, Mr. Bolton, speaking in Vienna, said it had been a very productive meeting. However, Western officials said that significant tensions still existed between some American officials and Dr. ElBaradei because his nuclear watchdog organization is regarded by some in Washington as ineffective compared with American and British efforts that persuaded Colonel Qaddafi to rid his country of illicit weapons programs.
And Dr. ElBaradei is said to have bristled at remarks from senior administration officials in Washington that the exposure of the secret Libyan nuclear weapons program demonstrated another failure of detection for the United Nations agency.
Dr. ElBaradei and Mr. Bolton agreed during their meeting what they would say publicly in order to minimize friction and reinforce their decision to work cooperatively as the demanding task of disarming Libya quickly unfolds, Western diplomats said.
A spokesman for Dr. ElBaradei said that he would be sending nuclear inspectors to Libya later this week to work with the American and British team. The international agency will tag and seal the machines, technology and dangerous materials so they can be placed in an inventory for destruction or removal.
The senior administration official said that Libya is in a hurry to dismantle the weapons programs, and is eager to make a full and detailed declaration about its once secret nuclear program to the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency in March.
These critical declarations, along with the dismantling and destruction of weapons and technology, will hasten the day when Libya looks to President Bush to lift sanctions and restore diplomatic relations with Tripoli, an essential step in the return of American oil companies, something Colonel Qaddafi and American oil executives have been seeking for a number of years.
Lacking a United States embassy in Libya, American officials are contemplating opening an office in Tripoli to facilitate the work of the weapons experts, one Western official said, but also to create a channel for direct diplomatic contact between Libyan and American officials.
Also today, the senior official said that the deadline of the Lockerbie settlement that hangs over the Libyan disarmament process could by extended by mutual consent if Congress has not acted to lift sanctions by May.
Libya agreed to pay $10 million to the families of victims of Pan Am Flight 103, downed by a Libyan terrorist operation in 1988. But the final $6 million in payments depends on a decision by President Bush to convince Congress to lift sanctions on Libya and to remove Libya from the list of terrorist-supporting states.
The senior official said that if all the disarmament tasks were not completed by May and if Congress had not acted, but it appeared that both would occur, Libya would probably extend the period of payment and not deprive the Lockerbie families of the final $6 million tranche. |
