Nuclear Inspectors Tour 4 Libyan Sites

In a major step toward disarmament, Libya on Sunday let U.N. officials inspect four sites related to its nuclear weapons program, all previously cloaked in secrecy.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei and a team of inspectors toured the facilities, including the small, experimental Tajura reactor, which Western diplomats have identified as the heart of the Libyan program.

The inspections, all in the Tripoli area, kicked off a process that IAEA officials said would be long and laborious and would include an accounting of Libya’s efforts to build an atomic bomb, the dismantling of equipment deemed usable for weapons production and ongoing monitoring.

“They promised us access and delivered,” Mark Gwozdecky, an IAEA spokesman, said of the initial outing.

ElBaradei also met with the chief of Libya’s nuclear program, Matouk Mohammed Matouk. In the evening, the IAEA team worked with Libyan officials on a long-term inspection plan.

The inspections followed months of secret talks among Libyan, U.S. and British officials that culminated this month with Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi’s announcement that his country would abandon its pursuit of nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction. Kadafi’s pledge is the latest in a series of moves to end his country’s international isolation and shed its image as a rogue nation.

ElBaradei said Saturday that Libya’s nuclear weapons program was embryonic and its scientists were far from producing a weapon. Still, he praised Libya’s new openness as a step in the right direction, “particularly in the Middle East.”