Libya Clinches European Arms Deal

Sarkozy yields to probe of ties to Gadhafi, Belgian nurses

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 4, 2007 9:11 AM CDT

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Libya Clinches European Arms Deal — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, left, shakes hands with French President Nicolas Sarkozy as they visit the bombed house by American airplanes in 1986 at the Bab Azizia Palace in Tripoli Wednesday, July 25, 2007. Sarkozy is calling his visit to Tripoli a bid to bring the country long considered a pariah... (Associated Press)

Nicolas Sarkozy submitted yesterday to calls for an inquiry over the weapons and nuclear technology deal just finalized with Libya, says the Financial Times. Sarkozy flew to Tripoli to shake on the deal last week, just days after Libya's release of six Bulgarian nurses. Under the agreement, Libya will buy an unknown number of anti-tank missiles from a European defense company and build a nuclear reactor.

Although the missile contract has been under negotiation for more than a year, French opposition leaders have demanded clarification over what promises Sarkozy made to Moammar Gadhafi to secure the prisoners' liberation. The EU lifted its Libyan arms embargo in 2004. (More Moammar Gadhafi stories.)

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