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Inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog arrived in Libya Tuesday to start supervising the process of dismantling the African country's nuclear weapons.
A spokesman of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed Tuesday that some inspectors from the IAEA had arrived in Libya and started work Tuesday. They will evaluate the details of their work. He said more inspectors would arrive in Libya in the next few weeks.
Diplomats in Vienna said that based on an agreement reached by the IAEA, and the United States and Britain, the UN nuclear organization will oversee nuclear facilities in Libya, while the US and British experts carry out the dismantlement of Libya's weapons of mass destruction.
Once the IAEA verification is completed, US and British experts will remove illicit equipment and materials from the North African country. It was reported that those materials would be shipped to secret factories in the United States or Britain.
The diplomats said US and British experts had begun to set up bases in Libya. The inspection was expected to be completed within weeks with cooperation of the US and British experts.
In Vienna, IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei Monday met US and British representatives, ending the difference on who should take the leading role in scrapping Libya's nuclear program.
Under the agreement reached by the two sides on their respective work, the IAEA takes responsibility for the verification in Libya's nuclear facilities, and the US and British side focuses on providing logistical support to the inspection missions carried out by the IAEA.
After Libya announced it would give up chemical, biological and nuclear weapons last month, both the IAEA and US and British experts sent missions to Tripoli, capital of Libya, to take inventory and discuss the details of their destruction.
(Xinhua News Agency January 21, 2004)
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