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| Africa North |
| U.S. and Libya negotiating nuclear medicine project |
| 2007-03-13 |
| The United States is close to reaching an agreement with Libya for cooperation on a nuclear medicine centre but for now has no plans for the kind of broad nuclear energy development Tripoli has suggested, a U.S. official said on Monday. Libya's official Jana news agency reported earlier on Monday that an agreement between the two countries that would help Libya generate nuclear electricity would be signed shortly. But the U.S. official, in an interview with Reuters, said the Jana report "vastly overstates things." "What we said to the Libyans after they got rid of their nuclear weapons effort (was) we'd be open to talking to them about some aspects of civilian uses of nuclear power," said the official who works on nonproliferation issues and spoke on condition of anonymity. Towards that end, "we talked to them about a nuclear medicine centre and we are engaged in serious discussions about our willingness to assist with that project," which would benefit the health of the Libyan people, he said. Nuclear medicine uses internally administered radioactive materials, called radioisotopes, to help diagnose and treat a wide variety of diseases. Exact details about the centre's cost and specific projects were not immediately available. The official added that the Bush administration had expected the agreement -- negotiated by the U.S. State Department and Department of Energy -- to be signed by Libyan authorities late last week and was surprised when it was not. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Remember the "Line of Death"? Good times...good times... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-03-13 16:49 |
| #1 We should NOT give Libya anything as long as they keep the Bulgarian nurses in jail. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2007-03-13 16:48 |