Libya denies efforts to own mass destruction weapons

Libya officially denied yesterday the US accusations saying it had sought to own mass destruction weapons and described the information to this effect as false.

The assistant secretary for culture and information at the people's general committee for foreign contacts and international cooperation Hassouna al-Shawish stressed "Libya's rejections of this accusation and described it as a new attempt of the deception attempts used to be used as justifications to serve imperialist objectives, according to deceiving groundless information."

The deputy for the US representative at the UN Security Council announced on the occasion of voting to lifting sanctions from Libya at the UN security council last Friday that Tripoli is still trying to own mass destruction weapons noting that Washington will intensify its efforts to put an end to the "Libyan threatening acts and this includes keeping all American bilateral sanctions." Libya is still on Washington's list for terrorism sponsoring states.

Al-Shawish said that "Libya had asserted repeatedly that it is not concerned with production or producing mass destruction weapons and has no extra funds to spend on armament, rather will spend the funds on economic and social developmental needs and to developing its people at the civilization and cultural aspects."

He added that his country was among the first countries which called for eliminating al mass destruction weapons from all countries and without discrimination, and also signed and ratified and abided by all agreements to this effect. Al-Shawish also refused the accusations of the American official which say that Libya violates human rights or supports terrorism.

The vote at the UN security council for lifting the sanctions came following an agreement between London, Washington and Tripoli on compensating families of victims of Lockerbie plane. It was followed by an agreement between Tripoli and Paris on compensating families of victims of the French Uta plane which resulted in killing 170 persons in 1989.