The diplomat, a mid-level State Department official who specializes in the Middle East, arrived in Libya earlier this week to begin the groundwork needed for the inspection teams, the sources told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We understand this is purely advance work that will involve logistics, not policy, not inspections, not verification," said one source.

A second source said the diplomat had arrived in Tripoli on Tuesday to help with "facilitating" visits to Libya by the larger teams that are expected to included between 12 and 15 people.

The State Department would neither confirm nor deny that the diplomat was on the ground, but spokesman Richard Boucher said US officials would travel to Libya occasionally as the disarmament process continues.

"From time to time, we will send people into Libya to help in that work, but I am not going to have any details on specific travel for you," he told reporters.

Boucher did say that the top US diplomat for arms control, John Bolton, would attend a meeting on Monday with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency to discuss its role in dealing with Libya's nuclear weapons program.

Bolton and his British counterpart William Ehrman are to see IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei in a bid to end what appears to be a turf battle over Libya between the UN atomic watchdog and Washington and London which negotiated the disarmament agreement with Tripoli in secret talks last year.

Bolton "looks forward to productive meetings with the director general and anticipates he'll have progress in ensuring our cooperation between the IAEA and the United States and the United Kingdom and Libya," Boucher said.

Bolton also expects to ensure "that the trilateral elimination of mass destruction initiative proceeds smoothly," Boucher added, referring to the US-British-Libyan agreement that was reached without IAEA involvement.

US officials have privately expressed concerns that the IAEA, with which they had disagreements in the run-up to the war in Iraq, might try to exceed its mandate in Libya and are insisting that US and British experts take the lead in verifying Tripoli's pledge.

But the IAEA has been adamant that it is the sole agency monitoring nuclear proliferation, according to diplomats in Vienna where the agency is based.

Earlier Friday in Vienna, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said consultations between the agency, the United States and Britain was ongoing.

"We are coordinating closely with the British, US and other governments to ensure a common understanding or our respective operational roles with regard to Libya's implementation of its bilateral and international commitments for the elimination of its WMD and related capabilities," he said.

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