
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990                   TAG: 9003081649
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

U.S. SEEKS AID AGAINST LIBYAN PLANT/ WHITE HOUSE SAYS THREAT OF CHEMICAL ARMS

The Bush administration called on the international community Wednesday to make "vigorous efforts to stop the operation" of what it described as a dangerous chemical weapons plant in Libya.

White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said all available evidence indicated the plant is "dangerous and becoming more so" and that the United States had expressed its concern to a number of governments. The international community, he said, "should step up its efforts to deny Libya the ability to continue operating the plant." He said increased international vigilance was needed to deter Libyan efforts to procure expert advice and equipment for the plant, situated 60 miles south of Tripoli near Rabta.

The plant is said by officials to be turning out small amounts of mustard gas and nerve gases.

Fitzwater was asked repeatedly whether the United States would take military action to stop the plant's production or urge other nations to do so but, following normal practice, he declined to speculate on military options.

The plant, which Libyan officials maintain manufactures pharmaceuticals and not chemical weapons, has been "under continual discussion with our allies and others and we intend to press ahead with those discussions in the coming days," Fitzwater said.

Fitzwater would not publicly specify the kind and amount of chemicals being manufactured, but administration officials said later that relatively small amounts of mustard gas were involved.

JANA, the Libyan news agency, quoted an unnamed official at the Libyan Foreign Ministry as denying reports of chemical gas manufacture and saying the plant was for "medicines." The official called contrary accounts in the American news media "sham" reports.

Fitzwater called on "all countries to survey their internal situation, to inventory their chemical production facilities and to make their own judgments that they are not a source for any of these chemicals."

White House officials said they were focusing their criticism on Libya, not on countries that might be aiding in the chemical plant operation. Last year, West German companies provided assistance to Libyan technicians but reportedly stopped after the U.S. complained.

Fitzwater said the "immediate threat" associated with the plant was Libya's leader, Moammar Gadhafi, who, he said, "has a history of terrorism and a history of erratic . . . behavior."

Washington and Moscow are working on a treaty to provide an international ban on producing chemical weapons.

by CNB