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UN weapons chief lauds Libya for its cooperation

UN nuclear weapons chief Moha-med ElBaradei met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Monday and praised Tripoli for cooperating with teams conducting the first-ever inspections of its atomic weapons programme.

"Libya has shown a good deal of cooperation, a good deal of openness," said ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "This is a country that appears fully committed to cooperating."

He led a team of inspectors invited to the North African country to see how far it had progressed toward developing a bomb and to make sure it went no further.

Following months of secret talks with US and British officials, Libya said this month it was abandoning efforts to obtain nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

At a half-hour meeting with ElBaradei, Gaddafi repeated his commitment to eliminating weapons of mass destruction. He also agreed to sign the Additional Protocol to the international nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, allowing snap inspections.

"Libya committed today to act as if the protocol was in force," ElBaradei told reporters.

After Libya's sudden renunciation of banned weapons programs, US President George W. Bush -- who has made tackling proliferation of such weapons a top priority -- promised to reward Libya with "far better" US relations.

ElBaradei said Libya's decision to come clean about its weapons programs would be rewarded.

"There are talks now of mainstreaming [Libya's] relations with the US, with Europe," he said.

"[Gaddafi] emphasized that Libya is looking at a different chapter in its relations with the international community, with the West. He put a lot of emphasis on the importance of international assistance for Libya," ElBaradei said.

The other IAEA inspectors, who will stay on until Thursday, carried out their first full day of inspections on Sunday, visiting four nuclear sites near the capital Tripoli that the UN body had never seen before.
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