U.S., U.N. Will Share Libya Nuclear Duties

The United States and the U.N. atomic agency agreed Monday to work together in examining, cataloging and scrapping Libya’s nuclear weapons program, ending weeks of squabbling over who has the authority to do so.

The deal was reached by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, British arms expert William Ehrman and U.S. Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, a critic of IAEA policy on Libya.

After the meeting at the offices of the U.S. mission to the IAEA, ElBaradei said the agreement gave his agency the role of establishing the scope and content of Libya’s nuclear program. Once IAEA verification is complete, U.S. and British experts will remove suspect materials from the North African country, he said.

Diplomats familiar with the agency said the IAEA also was claiming the right to verify that all contentious equipment and material had been removed or rendered unusable.

Tensions over who does what in Libya had spilled over into heated public discussion in recent weeks, with the IAEA insisting that it had the mandate to take the lead on nuclear issues.

Bush administration officials had said U.S. and British experts should lead in identifying and destroying Tripoli’s nuclear weapons program because U.S.-British talks with Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi led to his decision to renounce weapons of mass destruction.

“We have agreement on what needs to be done,” ElBaradei said. “Clearly, the agency’s role is very clear -- that we need to do the verification. A good part of the program needs to be eliminated, it needs to be moved out, and we clearly need the British and American support with logistics.”

ElBaradei recently visited four once-secret facilities in Tripoli. Since then, IAEA inspectors and U.S.-British teams have been to Libya to take stock of its nuclear programs.