International Health Insurance Ð Click here for an instant quote

Population: 5.5 million

Military dictatorship.

Col. Moammar Khadafy's government was isolated for years after the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight. U.S. embargo could be lifted after complete disarmament.

NPT: Joined in 1975.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS: NO

After months of secret negotiations, Libya announced in December it would abandon its nascent nuclear program and comply with NPT safeguards, including surprise inspections..

NUCLEAR CAPABILITIES: U.S., British and U.N. inspectors began visiting previously undeclared sites last month. The Libyans displayed dozens of centrifuges, machines to develop weapons-grade uranium. The enriched uranium could be used in nuclear power plants and, if further enriched, for weapons. The centrifuges were of the same design as some in Pakistan..

The inspectors also discovered crates of centrifuge parts and designs for building nuclear bombs, which showed an intention to build such weapons. The designs and other material have been secured.

DELIVERY SYSTEMS:

-- Libya has a limited and antiquated missile arsenal that includes Scud-Bs bought from the Soviet Union in the mid-1970s.

-- In the 1980s and early 90s, Libya tried unsuccessfully to buy missiles from the Soviet Union and China.

-- Its indigenous program to develop the Al Fatah missile was hampered by U.N. sanctions from 1992 to 1999. In 2000, a shipment of Scud components was intercepted en route to Libya.

[Source: The San Francisco Chronicle, "The dangerous world of nuclear weapons", FEBRUARY 22, 2004, p. A21]

---

Libya's rapid progress in scrapping its nuclear and chemical weapons programs has been "heartening," Rogelio Pfirter, director general of the international Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, declared this week.

Mr. Pfirter's group oversees the 1993 international treaty banning chemical weapons. Moammar Gadhafi's Libya joined the accord last month, pledging to destroy not only its existing stockpiles of these "Weapons of Mass Destruction" but also his nation's capability to build more.

Since then, the Dutch-based international inspectors have confirmed the disabling of Libya's sole chemical weapons factory; have witnessed the destruction of more than 3,500 aerial bombs designed to deliver chemical payloads; and have inventoried more than 20 tons of mustard gas and precursor chemicals that could have been used to manufacture literally thousands of tons of sarin nerve gas.

Under a timetable outlined in the treaty, the government in Tripoli must rid Libya of all such weapons and facilities by 2007. Gadhafi's regime is also cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.