France Offers to Help Develop Libya's Nuclear Energy
Date: 01-Jun-05
Country: FRANCE/LIBYA
"We have established the principle of cooperation in the area of peaceful nuclear energy but the details are still being worked out so we are still in an exploratory stage," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean Baptiste Mattei.
"We will soon propose an agreement to the Libyans about what can be done," he said in a statement.
In 2003, Libya promised to give up nuclear, chemical and biological arms and accepted the dismantling of proliferating installations. It also signed additional protocols with the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency.
Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi said at the time that he still hoped to develop a nuclear programme for peaceful means.
"Libya needs to develop its existing capacities in line with the country's needs," Mattei said.
Libya's official Jana news agency said in a statement France's ambassador to Tripoli on Monday handed Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalgam an official document stating his government's willingness to help.
The note was presented before a change of government in France on Tuesday.
"France announced Monday ...its interest in signing a bilateral cooperation agreement in this field, in appreciation of the courageous resolution taken by... (Libya) to voluntarily get rid of programmes and equipment that may lead to production of internationally banned weapons," Jana said.
Libya cast off more than a decade of international ostracism in 2003 when it accepted responsibility and began paying compensation for the bombing of airliners over Scotland and Niger in 1988 and 1989.