"I would like to salute your great vision and wisdom with this courageous decision," the west African leader said in a message to Kadhafi, who announced this month that his country was abandoning the pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear arms.

The Niger president said Libya's new policy was part of what he called Kadhafi's struggle "to create an international order that is just, equitable and respects the values of all peoples."

Niger's relations with the United States suffered ahead of the US-led war against Iraq after Washington sought to boost its case for the use of force by claiming that Iraq had earlier sought to buy uranium from Niamey.

The claim -- contained in President George W. Bush's State of the Union address last January -- was later shown to have been based on a forgery.

Tandja angrily denounced the claim last August. "On the basis of convincing elements presented by the government plus the converging analyses of different experts and professional journalists, it emerges beyond question that our country did not sell uranium to Iraq," he said.

In his message, published in the official daily Le Sahel, Tandja said Kadhafi's latest annuoncement, "which is part of the path of constructive dialogue, follows the happy resolution of the Lockerbie and UTA affairs."

Earlier this year, the United Nations lifted sanctions on Libya after it agreed to pay 2.7 billion dollars and accept responsibility for the 1988 bombing of the Pan Am aircraft over Lockerbie in Scotland, while denying guilt.

The Boeing 747, en route to New York from London, blew up, killing all 259 on board and 11 others on the ground.

The following year a UTA DC-10 jet plane of the French airline UTA blew up over Niger, causing 170 deaths.

Six Libyans were convicted in absentia by a French court in 1999 for carrying out the bombing.

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