On Monday, US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham had taken reporters on a tour of Libyan nuclear arms materials and equipment being housed in the US state of Tennessee and claimed their handover was an "important victory" in US nonproliferation efforts.

"Libya was quite unhappy with this dog and pony show because it hurts them domestically (and) in the Arab world," said the Vienna-based official close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which is headquartered in the Austrian capital.

"It looks like unilateral US disarmament of Libya, and Libya wants it recognized as disarmament under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and IAEA auspices," the official, who asked not to be named, told reporters in Washington.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei began a four-day visit to Washington Sunday during which he will meet US President George W. Bush to discuss how to improve the fight against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Abraham had said on his media tour of nonclassified materials from Libya -- including centrifuge parts required for uranium enrichment -- at the Department of Energy's Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee that "all of the ingredients were available for a weapons program to be developed" by Tripoli.

Abraham said Bush's "nonproliferation policy gives regimes a choice: They can choose to pursue weapons of mass destruction at their peril and at great cost, or they can choose to disarm, renounce terrorism and get on a path to better relations with the United States and the international community."

"The success of our mission in Libya underscores the success of this administration's broader nonproliferation efforts around the world," Abraham said.

US State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said at a regular news briefing in Washington Tuesday that it "would be an incorrect impression" to think the demonstration in Oak Ridge was to show that Libya's disarmament was strictly a US affair.

He said "the United States, along with Britain and the (IAEA) ... have had a great deal of cooperation and help in working with Libya to help Libya follow through on its stated desire to get rid of those programs in a comprehensive and verifiable way."

He said it was "a very cooperative and multilateral" effort and that the demonstration at Oak Ridge was not meant "to cow anyone."

Libya earlier this month in Vienna signed an agreement allowing IAEA inspectors to carry out surprise inspections at its nuclear facilities as part of its pledge to give up its weapons programs and end its international isolation.

The same day the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors voted to inform the UN Security Council that Tripoli had, in the past, violated its non-proliferation commitments but was now cooperating with the IAEA.

An IAEA resolution thanked Libya "for its active cooperation with the agency" since December 19, when Libya agreed with the United States and Britain to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction programs.

The IAEA is verifying, as mandated by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the nuclear part of the disarmament.

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