http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3762401/Libya will sign Chemical weapons convention - tv commentators calling this the "Saddam effect" - meaning that the Bush/Blair courageous strategy is working!!! Anyone want to send Howard Dean some extra pants... he probably just soiled the ones he is wearing.
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 5:33 p.m. ET Dec. 19, 2003
This is a developing story and will be updatedLONDON - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has confirmed his country has sought in the past to develop weapons of mass destruction capabilities but plans to dismantle all such programs immediately, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday.
Blair said Britain and the United States had been engaged in talks with Libya for nine months.
"Libya came to us in march following successful negotiations on Lockerbie to see if it could resolve its weapons of mass destruction issue in a similarly cooperative manner," the prime minister said in the northern English city of Durham.
"Libya has now declared its intent to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction completely and to limit the range of Libyan missiles to no greater than 300 kilometers."
The actions entitle Libya to “rejoin the international community,” Blair said.
Blair said Gadhafi had promised that the process would be "transparent and verifiable."
The U.N. Security Council ended U.N. sanctions against Libya Sept. 12 after Gadhafi's government took responsibility for the bombing of a Pan Am passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and agreed to pay families of the 270 victims $2.7 billion. The council's decision was largely symbolic, since the United Nations had temporarily suspended its embargo in April 1999.
But the United States has kept its own 17-year embargo in place. Washington has said Libya is actively developing biological and chemical weapons, upgrading its nuclear capabilities and seeking ballistic missiles to deliver weapons of mass destruction, for which it is receiving help from countries that sponsor terrorism.
"This decision by Col. Gadhafi is a historic one and a courageous one and I applaud it," said Blair.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
