Washington ? 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.

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.