The decision made by Libya on Saturday to allow snap UN nuclear arms inspections, a deal that goes beyond the basic demands of the main nuclear arms control treaty, is certainly laudable. 

Libyan officials made the offer to sign the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in Vienna on the same day of a meeting with Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN's nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

A key provision of the NPT's Additional Protocol that allows far more intrusive checks marks the nation's willingness to submit to unannounced inspections.

The latest move, which held out the prospect of the end of US sanctions and the return of US oil companies, marks an about-face for Moammar Khadafy, the country's leader for 34 years, who has been vilified by the United States throughout the last two decades, much as Iraqi ex-President Saddam Hussein was in recent years.

Libya has long been a NPT signatory, allowing limited IAEA inspections, but has now for the first time admitted secretly trying to build an atomic bomb ?an activity banned under the 1968 treaty.

Tripoli's latest decision was the culmination of a week of intense diplomacy that followed nine months of clandestine talks with the United States and Britain, which was pivotal in isolating Libya after the bombing in 1988 of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Libya was freed of broader UN sanctions this year after accepting responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paying billions to victims' families.

Washington, however, left its sanctions in place, accusing Tripoli of seeking biological and chemical arms.

Khadafy's widely praised decision may have stemmed from a desire to rejoin the international community.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan hailed the decision as "a positive step toward the strengthening of global efforts to prevent the spread and use of those weapons.

As the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery is the consensus of the international community, Libya's move undoubtedly serves the interest of its own people and adds to the security of the rest of the world.

(China Daily December 23, 2003)