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Gaddafi looks to shed Libya’s pariah status

Gaddafi looks to shed Libya’s pariah status

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi yesterday said he wanted to quickly shed his country’s pariah status and re-join the international community.

Mr Gaddafi held a 45-minute meeting with Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog.

IAEA officials are on a two-day trip of some of Libya’s nuclear facilities.

Two weeks ago, Mr Gaddafi pledged to scrap Libya’s secret nuclear weapons programme and rid the country of weapons of mass destruction.

A spokesman for ElBaradei said the Libyan leader reaffirmed his decision to fully co-operate with the IAEA.

Libya was internationally ostracised for the terror strike on Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, which killed 270 people.