A disarmament body said today it would start work in Libya this week to ensure Tripoli's compliance with a chemical-weapons ban.
A six-member team from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will begin preparatory work in Libya on Thursday, paving the way for inspectors to eventually visit sites and secure any chemical weapons prior to destruction.
Libya said in December it would abandon weapons of mass destruction programmes and open its territory to international weapons inspectors. It signed up to a chemical weapons ban convention in January.
Although the OPCW is not a UN agency, the United Nations recognises the results of its inspections, which are expected to start in Libya from around March.
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, joined US and British weapons experts in Libya last month to begin dismantling its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.