31 May 2005

TRIPOLI - France told Libya on Monday that it is prepared to help Libya develop its civilian nuclear energy programme, according to an official Libyan source.

French Ambassador to Tripoli, Jean-Luc Sibiude, handed Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Shalgham an official note announcing Frances readiness to cooperate with Tripoli on its nuclear power projects, the Jana news agency reported.

A French delegation is expected here soon to work out the details of this cooperation.

In Paris, a diplomatic source said France had examined a request from Libya. We are going to enter into some form of cooperation with this country.

Frances favourable response to Tripolis overtures was indeed communicated to the Libyan authorities by the French ambassador, he added.

During a visit by President Jacques Chirac last November, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi told the French head of state that his nation had renounced weapons of mass destruction and hoped that the transfer of technology would permit the oil-rich nation to develop a nuclear programme for peaceful means.

On that occasion Chirac vowed to forge a true partnership with Libya.

Chiracs visit was the first by a French head of state since Libyan independence from Italy in 1951.

Kadhafi has undergone a dramatic diplomatic reversal in the past year since agreeing to stop developing weapons of mass destruction, denouncing terrorism and acknowledging responsibility for the Lockerbie and French UTA plane bombings in the 1980s.