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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 15, 1990                   TAG: 9003152510
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TUNIS, TUNISIA                                 LENGTH: Medium

LIBYAN PLANT ON FIRE

Mahmoud Azzabi, press secretary at Libya's U.N. mission in New York, confirmed reports of a blaze at the Rabta plant 60 miles southwest of Tripoli.

"There is speculation that it was possibly sabotage, somebody coming in from Tunisia," Azzabi said.

The British Broadcasting Corp. early today quoted an unidentified spokesman for the official Libyan news agency Jana as saying there had been a fire in some machinery at the plant but the building had not been damaged.

For more than 14 months, the United States has accused Libya of using the plant to make chemical weapons, including mustard and nerve gases.

Libya denies this, and Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi has said the plant was designed to produce pharmaceuticals.

A spokesman for the Tunisian Interior Ministry, in a telephone interview from Paris, said Libya had reinforced its border forces.

The radical North African nation also shares borders with Egypt, Chad, Niger, Sudan and Algeria. Security sources in Algiers, the Algerian capital, said early today they had no reports of extra security on the Libyan side of the border.

"The Libyans said it was a terrorist attack but it was impossible to say what group," the Interior Ministry spokesman said on condition of anonymity. He refused to answer other questions.

One report said Libya blamed the United States and Israel. Both nations denied involvement.

A week ago, the White House said it was seriously concerned by evidence the plant was producing chemical weapons.

Reports of a fire first came from Washington early Wednesday evening.

President Bush said the United States had heard rumors that the plant was on fire. Bush told reporters in a hall at the White House "we didn't know" what happened.

A diplomatic source said the United States learned of the fire from Tunisia, which relayed its information to Italy and the United States.

ABC News quoted unidentified Libyan security sources as claiming the plant was burned to the ground by the action of U.S. and Israeli agents.

White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said, "We deny we had any involvement."

A spokesman at the Israeli military command in Jerusalem said: "I only heard about it from news reports. I do not know if the plant is really on fire and I have nothing to say about it."

Fitzwater said indications of a fire were apparent sightings of smoke from the plant.

"We just dare not speculate on the cause," he said.

There is no Libyan embassy in Washington, and the United Arab Emirates Embassy, which handles Libyan representation, said no one was available to speak for Libya.

The United States has engaged in hostilities with Libya three times in the 1980s, twice shooting down Libyan fighter planes and bombing Tripoli in 1986 in retaliation for what President Reagan said was terrorism against Americans in Europe.

Western journalists were invited to tour the plant in January last year, but were not allowed to inspect it after they arrived in Rabta.

They did see that the area was protected with surface-to-air missile batteries, tanks and soldiers. A short distance away, a radar station operated on a high, barren ridge overlooking the highway that led to the industrial complex.