HC Deb 27 January 2004 vol 417 cc292-3W
Llew Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what new resources he is committing to assist Libya is undertaking the disarmament and dismantling of its weapons of mass destruction and related research and production infrastructure. [147027]

Mr. MacShane

We have made it clear that we are prepared to offer assistance with the dismantlement of Libyan programmes, but at this stage it is impossible to quantify what resources it may be necessary to commit. There are already a number of sources of funding for global co-operative threat reduction programmes. If it is necessary to allocate additional resources in order to assist Libya in the destruction of its weapons programmes we will do so, as we believe that money spent on reducing the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction is money well spent.

Llew Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when Her Majesty's Government first confirmed that Libya was developing nuclear weapons contrary to its commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); when the United Kingdom informed the governments of the two other depository states for the NPT of its knowledge of Libya's breach of its NPT commitments; when the United Kingdom first informed(a) the Director General and (b) board members of the International Atomic Energy Agency of its knowledge of Libya's nuclear programme; and what information he has collated on the suppliers of Libya's nuclear weapons programme. [147029]

Mr. MacShane

We have had concerns for some time about Libya's nuclear programme and first raised the matter in the course of discussions with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in late 2001, and again in mid 2002. Libya is now in contact with the IAEA and it will be for Libya to make a national declaration providing the full details of its programme to the IAEA. The IAEA will then proceed to verify the extent and nature of Libya's covert nuclear activity. Only the IAEA, acting within its remit can underwrite Libya's commitment to stop this activity. We are working in close co-operation with both the Libyan authorities and the IAEA to move this process forward.