Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said on Tuesday that the IAEA will help Libya develop nuclear technology for civilian purposes after Libya dismantles its weapons of mass destruction (WMD), according to reports reaching Cairo from Libyan capital Tripoli.

At a press conference in Tripoli at the end of his two-day visit to Libya, ElBaradei said the IAEA will help Libya not only in military projects to dismantle the WMD, but also in civilian projects of developing nuclear technology.

Abdel Rahman Mohammad Shalgam, secretary of foreign communication and international cooperation of Libya, said at the press conference that foreign experts will arrive in Libya in the near future and discuss civilian use of nuclear energy.

ElBaradei told reporters on Monday after talks with Libyan Deputy Prime Minister Matoug Mohamed Matoug that Libya has agreed to dismantle its WMD by June.

Also on Monday, after meeting with Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Mohammad Shalgam, ElBaradei said Libya wants to retain some nuclear capacity for civilian use, a desire he described as "something legitimate."

The research reactor Libya wants to retain currently uses uranium with an enrichment rate as high as 80 percent, capable enough of producing atomic bombs.

Last Friday, the IAEA claimed in a report that Libya refined a certain amount of plutonium in its secret weapons program that had lasted for 20 years.

The IAEA report disclosed that Libya's nuclear program was more advanced than generally believed. However, the country has not produced enough substances, 3 kg, to build a bomb.

On March 8, the UN nuclear watchdog's 35-nation board of governors will meet at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, to review the report.

This is ElBaradei's second trip to the country since Libya agreed to renounce its nuclear program last December.

Last December, after nearly a year of secret talks with the United States and Britain, Libya announced its decision to scrap programs to develop weapons of mass destruction. And in January, the IAEA started inspections of Libya's nuclear facilities.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2004)