Tripoli, Feb. 23 (Reuters): The head of the UN nuclear watchdog arrived in Libya today to discuss the global atomic black market and the dismantling of Tripoli’s bomb programme — though diplomats said Libya wants to keep some nuclear plants.

In December, Libya said it was renouncing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and invited US, British and international experts to help it disarm.

Since then, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has overseen the US and British disarmament process, which has seen the removal of massive amounts of equipment and documents from Libya to the US.

“The purpose of my (two-day) visit is to take stock of where we are and agree with them on the next set of inspection activities and to hopefully move forward,” IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said before boarding the plane to Tripoli.

While praising Libya’s cooperation with UN inspectors and willingness to have its nuclear programme dismantled, diplomats said Libya insists on keeping some nuclear facilities, though it has agreed to permit the dismantling of the most sensitive one.