December 25, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 1, 1424

CAIRO, Dec 24: The son of Libyan leader Moamer Qadhafi has said the United States has committed itself to providing security for the country and that US officials will travel there soon to ascertain its needs.

Seif al Islam, in comments published on Wednesday in the Saudi-owned daily Asharq al Awsat, also said British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush would visit Libya next year.

Mr Seif said Washington had “committed itself to protecting us from any sort of attack” and that there had been “consultations to conclude security and military accords that would lead to joint military manoeuvres in the future”.

American military officials “will come to Libya soon to apprise themselves of its military protection requirements”, he added.

Last week, Tripoli won plaudits from the international community, including long-time foes London and Washington, with a surprise announcement that it was renouncing efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Blair described the announcement, which followed nine months of secret talks between Libya and Britain and the United States, as “courageous” and “historic”.

Mr Bush said the move by Libya, long a pariah on the world stage, would help bolster security worldwide, adding that Libya had begun “the process of rejoining the community of nations”.

Referring to Tripoli’s decision, Seif al Islam said factories for the production of missiles, mostly Scud-Bs with a range of 300 kilometres that had been built jointly with the former Soviet Union and North Korea “will not be dismantled or destroyed”.

However, he reaffirmed that “programmes for the production of chemical, biological and nuclear arms would stop”, except those that are for defensive purposes and which will be submitted to “international surveillance”.

Referring to the upcoming visits, the Libyan president’s son said “the British premier will visit Tripoli at the beginning of next year, followed by a visit by US President George Bush.

“I foresee (the Bush visit) happening after the lifting of US sanctions, which I believe should happen within three months at most,” he told the London-based newspaper by telephone from Tripoli.

In a separate interview published in another Saudi-owned daily, Al Hayat, Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem said the weapons programmes the country was now abandoning had been designed for defence, “given that countries (in the Middle East such as Israel) possess nuclear and mass destruction weapons”.

He expressed hope that the Libyan decision would inspire the international community to press Israel to abandon these arms.

He also denied speculation that Libya’s decision was based on “what happened in Iraq”.—AFP