Bush Not Sorry About Blaze at Chemical Plant

President Bush said in an interview broadcast Saturday that he still does not know whether the fire at a Libyan factory suspected of producing chemical weapons was caused by sabotage or accident, but he added that he is not sorry it happened.

“The best intelligence that I’ve had, and I think it’s the best in the world, is uncertain as to whether this was an accident or some incident of sabotage,” the President told National Public Radio.

But since the plant was “manufacturing bad chemicals, chemicals that would be used for killing people, . . . I don’t lament what happened,” Bush said.

The plant, located at Rabta, about 60 miles southwest of Tripoli, was damaged extensively and apparently put out of operation by a fire that began Wednesday night.

U.S. officials said earlier this month that the Rabta factory had begun to produce limited supplies of deadly mustard gas and nerve gas. Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi has insisted that the facility was designed to produce pharmaceuticals.

Bush repeated his denial of U.S. involvement in the fire during a phone conversation Saturday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who initiated the call, Egypt’s Middle East News Agency reported.

“President Bush assured President Mubarak . . . that he had nothing to do with what happened . . . despite previously declared U.S. objections to industries that might be related to chemical weapons,” the agency said.

It did not say which leader brought up the subject of the fire, or whether Bush volunteered the denial or made it in reply to a question from Mubarak.

In the radio interview, Bush said: “The United States was not involved in any sabotage activity.

“But I think it would be fruitless to speculate as to whether it was an accident--there are some highly inflammable chemicals in there--or whether somebody sabotaged it. I’ve heard what Mr. Kadafi has said, and he apparently is suggesting sabotage. But I don’t think we know enough about it yet.”

Kadafi and other Libyan officials have accused the United States, Israel and West Germany of responsibility for the fire.

The United States has demanded since 1988 that the plant be shut down. Last week, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater charged that the plant had begun producing chemical weapons and called for an international effort to close it.