LIBYA: Col Muammar Gadafy invited the world to come to Libya to see for itself that Tripoli was not concealing banned weapons, after promising the country was abandoning its nuclear weapons programme.
"Come and see . . . We don't want to hide anything," the Libyan leader told CNN in an interview broadcast yesterday.
Libyan and UN officials said on Monday that snap checks of Libyan nuclear sites could begin as soon as next week after Tripoli accepted UN inspections to convince the world it was giving up its nuclear weapons ambitions.
Col Gadafy's oil-rich state, long on the US list of sponsors of terrorism, said last week it was abandoning plans to build an atomic bomb and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD). It now wants trading benefits, including an end to US sanctions.
"We have no intention to make these weapons, these WMD. But there are many rumours, many accusations, \ propaganda against Libya, particularly in this field, and we have to stop this propaganda against us," he said in English.
"And we say: Why are you accusing us and using propaganda? You exercise terrorist policy against the Libyan people by accusing us," he said.
Libya's moves to scrap its illicit weapons programmes mark an about-face for Col Gadafy, who seized power 34 years ago in the North African desert nation of 5.5 million.
Asked what assurances he had received on sanctions being removed, Col Gadafy said: "We have good faith in improving relations between our two respective countries. - (Reuters)