WASHINGTON, March 17: The US State Department said on Wednesday that the Bush administration didn't intend to embarrass Libya by displaying nuclear components it received from the Arab country.

On Monday, the US Treasury Department took a team of journalists from Washington to a display of the components at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, causing the Libyan government to complain that the show was an embarrassment for Libya.

Leaders of the opposition Democratic Party in the United States also have criticized the exhibition as insensitive and said that the Bush administration was using a sensitive foreign policy issue to gain political mileage in the coming election.

The critics said the Arab press was already criticizing Libya for cowing under US pressure and the display would further embarrass Libyan leaders. "This is not a design to embarrass anyone.

It was simply designed to demonstrate the kind of materials that are involved here," said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. "And anybody who sort of thinks that this is sending a message of seeking to cow anyone is really misreading it."

Mr Ereli said Libya's decision to give up the components was the result of "a very cooperative process and it is a process that is being led by, initiated by, and supported by Libya and the international community."

He said it was "an incorrect impression" that the United States was forcing Libya to disarm. "I think it's clear that, first and foremost, Libya has taken an important and commendable step in deciding that its WMD programs don't serve a useful purpose," he added.

The United States and Britain, he said, received "a great deal of cooperation and help" in working with Libya to help Tripoli follow through on its stated desire to get rid of those weapons in a comprehensive and verifiable way.

The decision to disarm, he said, will allow Libya to devote its resources to the welfare of its people and re enter the international community. "So this is, by all accounts and by all means, a very co-operative and multilateral effort that involves Libya, the United States, Britain, and international organisations in helping to address this issue, which Libya has, of its own volition, decided to do," said Mr Ereli.