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Bush Doctrine Works: Pakistan Follows Libya in Bowing to U.S. Pressure NewsMax.com WiresVIENNA, Austria – Libya has agreed to open its nuclear activities to pervasive inspection by the U.N. atomic agency as early as next week, a key step toward honoring a promise to scrap its nuclear weapons program, the agency's chief said Monday. Also Monday, Pakistan acknowledged that some scientists participating in its nuclear program may have been involved in the proliferation of sensitive technology. Libya's decision followed a meeting its delegation had Saturday with Mohamed ElBaradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The session came after Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's surprise announcement Friday that his country would give up nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. ElBaradei said he would lead the first inspection mission, which he described as a positive step on the part of Libya "to rid itself of all programs or activities that are relevant or could lead to the production of weapons of mass destruction." "We will start as early as ... next week," ElBaradei said. He said he and senior experts would meet with Libyan government officials in the capital, Tripoli, to agree on how to carry out pervasive inspections, with inspection teams following shortly afterward. Libya has admitted to nuclear fuel projects, including the possession of centrifuges and centrifuge parts used in uranium enrichment - a nuclear effort more advanced than previously thought. It agreed to tell the IAEA about nuclear programs and to adhere to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. During Saturday's meeting, the Libyan delegation also agreed that it was in breach of its safeguard obligations and that it would sign an additional protocol to the Nonproliferation Treaty. That move gives IAEA a strong mandate for wide-ranging inspections on short notice. ElBaradei confirmed Monday that the Libyans were ready to sign that protocol. He described that concession as a "welcome step [that] gives us the authority to detect nuclear activity at a nascent stage, the kind of activity that has been going on in Libya." Revealing some details of Libya's activities, ElBaradei said the weapons research effort started with a program to enrich uranium through spinning in centrifuges "sometime in the '80s, picked up steam in the '90s." "It involved the importation of centrifuges, equipment, natural uranium," he told reporters at IAEA headquarters in Vienna. ElBaradei said Libyan officials in Vienna told him the experiments did not progress to uranium enrichment, a key step in creating nuclear weapons. He said it was too early to establish whether some of the technology and expertise used in the program was linked to suspected nuclear weapons programs in Iraq or in Iran, which, under international pressure, agreed to sign the additional protocol last week. Pakistan Doesn't Want to Be the Next Iraq Pakistan's government has strongly denied allegations it spread nuclear technology to countries such as Iran and North Korea but said it was investigating whether individual scientists acted without authorization. "Some individuals may have been doing something on their own. We are investigating that," Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press in Islamabad. ElBaradei expressed confidence that, with continued cooperation by Tripoli, his agency would be able to "resolve all issues relevant to Libya's effort to develop weapons of mass destruction" over the next few months. Gadhafi's decision to come clean is the latest in a series of moves to end his country's international isolation and shed its reputation as a rogue nation. Take That, Europe The United States, accusing Libya of supporting terrorist groups, imposed sanctions in 1986. Ten years later, America passed the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act, which threatened to penalize the U.S. partners of European companies that did significant business in Libya and Iran. Though U.S. sanctions remain in force, the U.N. Security Council voted to abolish its sanctions on Libya in September, after it agreed to pay compensation to families of the Lockerbie bombing. Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988, killing 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground. A former Libyan intelligence agent was found guilty of the bombing in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison. © 2003 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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