U.N.: Libya Processed Plutonium

Libya used technology and know-how acquired on the black market to process uranium into a small amount of plutonium, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Friday.

Diplomats citing a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency said the country was able to "separate a small amount of plutonium."

The report did not specify the amount, but it appeared to be less than the approximate 7 pounds required to make a nuclear bomb.

The confidential report also said Libya "imported nuclear material and conducted a wide variety of nuclear activities which it had failed to report" to the IAEA as required by agreements with the agency, diplomats told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The report was prepared by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei ahead of an agency board of governors' meeting next month. A separate report on Iran is due within days.

Revelations that Libya was able to process plutonium shed new light on how far the country was able to progress in its secret weapons program.

Libya announced in December it engaged in researching programs of mass destruction and promised to scrap them. While U.S. and British intelligence spoke of a fairly advanced program, the IAEA initially described Libya's nuclear activities as at the beginning stages.

Much of Libya's activity focused on enriching uranium, the report said. That — along with producing plutonium — is one way to develop the nuclear material used in warheads.

Between the early 1980s until the end of 2003, "Libya imported nuclear material and conducted a wide variety of (clandestine) nuclear activities," the report said.

Those activities included failing to declare imports of uranium compound UF6, which is used in the enrichment process, in 1985, 2000 and 2001, the report said.

A Sri Lankan businessman, Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, who is implicated in the nuclear black market, has said that a Pakistani scientist told him of shipments to Libya of UF6. That scientist, Abdul Qaheer Khan, led an illicit network supplying nuclear technology to rogue nations such as Libya, Iran and North Korea.

After its disclosure in December, Libya surrendered drawings of a nuclear warhead to American and British experts. The blueprints and accompanying documents now are in the United States under the IAEA seal.

Diplomats recently told the AP that the drawing detailed how to build a warhead for a large ballistic missile, using technology developed by the Chinese in the 1960s that triggers a nuclear blast by a small conventional explosion.

By George Jahn