France has agreed to supply Libya with a 600-megawatt nuclear power station, train Libyan technicians and help man the installations. The decision was taken yesterday at a meeting in Tripoli between French Premier Jacques Chirac and Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi.
A French official spokesman confirmed this afternoon the sale but stressed that the nuclear power station cannot be used for military purposes. He said Chirac has refused to sell Libya a unit for the production of heavy water or plutonium which could be eventually used for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
French sources say that no new military agreements were negotiated during Chirac’s trip to Libya where he also conferred at length with Prime Minister Abdel Salam Jalloud. Chirac’s trip has helped Libya break the international isolation with which it is faced since its relations with Egypt. Tunisia and Lebanon have been practically broken.
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