Libyan leader Colonel Moamer Kadhafi on Saturday claimed his decision late 2003 to abandon all weapons of mass destruction was motivated by self-preservation.
"Any national state that adopts this policy (of weapons of mass destruction) cannot protect itself, instead it would expose itself to danger," he said at the closing ceremony of a summit meeting of the African Union (AU).
"The nuclear arms race is a crazy and destructive policy for the economy and for life. We would like to have a better economy and a better life," he was quoted as saying by the AFP.
"We have found out it is not the responsibility of any national state" to possess such weapons, but rather that of multinational bodies such as the AU, which groups 53 African states.
He added that any proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by any individual African state would jeopardize their ties with one another.
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
