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Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, meeting in the dead of night in his capital with officers from the Central Intelligence Agency and British intelligence, appeared eager to do away with his weapons programs, U.S. officials said Saturday.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi takes a question during a press conference in Triopli, Libya Monday, Feb. 5, 2001. Gadhafi, meeting in the dead of night in his capital with officers from the Central Intelligence Agency and British intelligence, appeared eager to do away with his weapons programs, U.S. officials said Saturday, Dec. 20, 2003. [AP]

Those secret meetings over recent months led to Friday's surprise announcement that Libya would cease work on its programs to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, including an effort to refine uranium for use in nuclear devices, the officials said.

The United States and Britain portrayed the announcement as a significant breakthrough in their efforts to curtail the spread of such weapons and keep them from a terrorist organization or hostile country.

It is clear, however, that Gadhafi has tried in recent years to ease tensions with the West, and this step was expected to further improve Libya's international standing.

Gadhafi initiated the talks and the subsequent onsite inspections in March after he agreed to settle the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, with cash payments and an admission of complicity. His overture for talks came days before the United States and Britain invaded Iraq.

President Bush said the ouster and capture of Saddam Hussein and U.S. efforts to check weapons pursuits by North Korea and Iran played a role in Gadhafi's decision. Gadhafi's son said Saturday his father went ahead after receiving assurances that the United States was not plotting against him. Libya also claimed it had acted on its own to serve as an inspiration for the rest of the world.

Senior intelligence officials, including one on the inspection team that went to Libya, briefed reporters Saturday on the chain of events that led to the announcement. They spoke on condition they not be identified.

Most significant among the discoveries was that Libya had built a working centrifuge for uranium enrichment. To make weapons-grade uranium, a raw form of the substance can be passed through a series of centrifuges that slowly create a product capable of nuclear fission.

Such programs need hundreds of centrifuges, called a cascade, to make significant quantities of uranium over a reasonable time. The inspection teams saw only one or a few centrifuges, and the Libyans denied that any enriched uranium had been produced.

The intelligence officials refused to say how Libya obtained centrifuge technology. Both Iran and North Korea are thought to have the technology, as are a number of companies and U.S. allies.

Before their meetings with Gadhafi, the American and British intelligence officers were whisked around Tripoli, the capital, by Libyan security officials, sometimes changing cars before arriving at the sites of meetings with Gadhafi.

Gadhafi was described as agreeable, laying out proposals for disarming and allowing inspections. He provided information about Libyan weapons programs that Western intelligence agencies had been unaware of.

The Libyans had chemical weapons and medium-range missiles from North Korea and, at a minimum, a program to make uranium for nuclear weapons. U.S. intelligence agencies lack information that Libya had enriched the uranium to make a nuclear weapon or possessed biological weapons. For all the Libyan cooperation, officials acknowledged there still could be undisclosed weapons and programs.

So far, the United States has learned that Libya had:

_Tens of tons of mustard agent, a World War I-era chemical weapon, produced about 10 years ago.

_Aircraft bombs capable of dispersing the mustard agent in combat.

_A supply of Scud-C ballistic missiles made in North Korea. The weapons can hit targets 500 miles away.

Much of this information reinforced the CIA (news - web sites)'s assumptions, intelligence officials said, although some expressed surprise at how far the Libyans' nuclear program had advanced.

Early in the year, before contacts began, Libyan officials approached the British government to open discussions. Washington was later included in negotiations that took place at an undisclosed location in Europe.

After some initial visits to Tripoli, a team of CIA and British intelligence personnel went to Libya in October to inspect weapons sites. The team included technical experts on weapons programs.

At some point, the CIA presented the Libyans with its intelligence about the programs. The Libyans were surprised at how much the agency knew, the officials said, then provided much more information.

The second inspection visit, in December, was more fruitful, the officials said.

During the visits, the team went to 10 sites related to Libya's nuclear effort, chemical stockpile and missile program.

The U.S. intelligence officials also acknowledged that authorities had stopped a shipment intended to supply Libya's weapons program. They would provide no details.

It is unclear if the intelligence team will return, the officials said. Libya has agreed to allow U.N. inspectors access to its programs.

Gadhafi also agreed to get rid of missiles with ranges longer than 186 miles, which would include the North Korean Scud-Cs but not Scud-Bs, which have the 186-mile range.

The officials said Libya was developing the weapons for its defense, but they refused to discuss whether Libya had provided weapons or expertise to other countries.

Bush said that if Libya shows it is serious in honoring its commitment, there was the possibility of U.S. help in making Libya "a more free and prosperous country."

The United States has a 17-year embargo in place against Libya and continues to list Libya among nations that sponsor terrorism. Britain's foreign secretary indicated that Washington may lift the embargo.

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