Now Libya allows snap UN inspection

Colonel Gadaffy of Libya moved a step further to disarmament today after he offered to open his country's weapons programmes to snap inspections by the United Nations.

The move to allow UN inspectors to go into atomic installations was made in talks at the weekend in Vienna between Libyan officials and Mohammed el Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Authority.

But critics of the conflict in Iraq said it was further evidence that Saddam Hussein, too, could have been tamed by patient diplomacy rather than war.

Libya announced on Friday that - after negotiations with the US and Britain - it was scrapping chemical and biological weapons programmes as well as its secret effort to build an atomic bomb.

The move was hailed by Tony Blair. But the Prime Minister faced continued appeals from the families of the victims of the Lockerbie bomb 15 years ago to hold an inquiry into the attack on the Pan Am flight.

UN inspectors are set to travel to Libya, perhaps within a matter of weeks, to begin the dismantling of the country's nuclear programme.

Intelligence sources say that development teams were already making enriched uranium, which took them "way down the road" to an atomic weapon. Libya has admitted seeking a deal with North Korea on long-range missiles.