Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=23/02/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=LIBYA/NUCLEAR (LONG ONLY)

NUMBER=2-313379

BYLINE=MELANIE SULLY

DATELINE=VIENNA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has started a two-day visit to Libya where he will meet senior officials and discuss progress on dismantling the country's nuclear-weapons program. Libya says it wants to keep one facility that experts say could be used to make material for nuclear bombs. Melanie Sully reports from Vienna, where the I-A-E-A has its headquarters.

TEXT: The I-A-E-A has the job of establishing the scope and content of Libya's nuclear program, following the government's announcement last year that it is prepared to end its effort to build weapons of mass destruction.

Once the investigation is complete, U-S and British experts want to remove suspect material for destruction.

But Libya has told the I-A-E-A it wants to keep three nuclear facilities.

A high-level delegation headed by I-A-E-A chief Mohamed ElBaradei is in Tripoli for talks that are expected to include this new request.

Western diplomats say one uranium-conversion plant in particular should be dismantled because of its sensitive nature.

At the International Institute for Strategic Studies, former U-S official Gary Samore says Tripoli should honor its new commitment on nuclear weapons. But he also says one facility like the uranium plant would not be much use by itself.

/// SAMORE ACT ONE ///

It is hard to argue it makes much sense for them to have a conversion facility and based on what the I-A-E-A announced very recently the size of the conversion facility is very, very small, and one of the big weaknesses in the Libya program is that they did not have a production-scale conversion facility, which would allow them to produce uranium hexaflouride.

/// END ACT ///

The I-A-E-A says such conversion facilities are not banned under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, as long as they are used for peaceful purposes.

But Mr. Samore says Libya clearly wanted to use this plant to build a bomb.

/// SAMORE ACT TWO ///

The Libyans clearly had accumulated a lot of the bits and pieces for a production-scale centrifuge plant, which would have given them the ability to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a couple of bombs a year, and they clearly had a design for a nuclear weapon that is a workable design.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Samore says Libya was years away from being able to assemble all those bits and pieces.

The I-A-E-A board meets at the beginning of March in Vienna to discuss Libya's nuclear program. (SIGNED)

NEB/MS/AWP/MEM/RAE