VIENNA, March 8: Russia has agreed to recycle weapons-grade uranium from Libya in a move to help Tripoli dismantle its weapons of mass destruction programs, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Monday.

"Russia agreed to take back the HEU (highly enriched uranium)" as it "was the original supplier in the 1980s for the 10-megawatt reactor and critical facility at the Tajoura Nuclear Research Center near Tripoli," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a press statement.

Russia will "blend down the HEU", which was enriched to 80 per cent, "into low-enriched uranium (LEU), making it unsuitable for a nuclear weapon," the statement said.

The HEU was "in the form of fresh fuel, . . . in fuel assemblies containing about 13 kilograms of fissile uranium-235, as well as about three kilograms of uranium," the statement said.

It said "HEU is a safeguarded fissile material that fuels nuclear reactors for research and electricity production, but can also be processed and used to make a nuclear weapon."

The IAEA's chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, said in Libya last month that his agency would help the northern African state convert its military-oriented nuclear program into a peaceful program.

The recycling of the Tajoura reactor for the LEU - which Russia will return once it is recycled - rather than HEU is part of this. Libya has since December been dismantling its weapons of mass destruction development programs, after reaching agreement on this with the United States and Britain.

The HEU was taken out of Libya on Sunday and Monday. "The 700,000 dollar fuel-removal was funded by the United States Department of Energy," the IAEA statement said. -AFP