afrol News, 18 February - The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency will visit Libya at the beginning of next week to review progress in verifying that all of the country's nuclear activities are placed under safeguards and designed exclusively for peaceful purposes, the UN reports.

The Director-General of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, will meet with senior Libyan officials on 23 and 24 February during his second visit since Tripoli announced in December that it would fulfil all obligations under regimes covering the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

In that regard, Libya has agreed to take the necessary steps to conclude an Additional Protocol to its Safeguards Agreement under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which will provide the IAEA with broader inspection rights, and to pursue a policy of full transparency and active cooperation with the Agency.

On his first visit in late December, Mr ElBaradei was accompanied by an IAEA team of experts to initiate an in-depth process of verification of Libya's past and present nuclear activities, according to the UN.

The visit followed meetings in Vienna between Mr ElBaradei and Matooq Mohamed Matooq, Assistant Secretary for Services Affairs of the General People's Committee of Libya, informing the IAEA of Libya's decision to eliminate "materials, equipments and programmes which lead to the production of internationally proscribed weapons."

After the visit, Mr ElBaradei said Libya's nuclear programme was "at an early stage of development." Last month the IAEA agreed with the United States and Britain that they would remove "sensitive" equipment and material from Libya while the UN agency verifies that the country is free of weapons of mass destruction.

Since that, the US and Libyan governments have confirmed that US diplomats have been installed in Tripoli to assist in the verification programme. This constitutes the first US diplomatic representation in Libya since the conflict between the two nations.

Also as a response to the Libyan disarmament, Britain and other European countries have now normalised their relations with Libya, which during the 1990s was seen as a country supporting international terrorism.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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