Islamabad: Pakistan's nuclear pioneer Abdul Qadeer Khan and four others have confessed to leaking nuclear secrets to groups working for Iran, Libya and North Korea, an official close to the Government's nuclear proliferation probe said yesterday (Feb 1, 2004).

"Dr Qadeer and four others have accepted that they were involved in leaking nuclear know-how outside Pakistan to groups working for Iran, Libya and North Korea," said the official, who could not be named.

The information was leaked between 1986 and 1993, he added.

It was the first time North Korea had been named in the Government's investigation.

The official said an eleven page report carrying the confessions has been submitted to President General Pervez Musharraf.

Asked if there will be criminal proceedings against those who have confessed he said, "It is up to the national command authority to take a decision of which the President Pervez Musharraf is the chairman."

It was not yet clear whether Khan had admitted to giving centrifuge designs for uranium enrichment to Iran and Libya, he said.

Another Government official said Musharraf might address the nation soon after the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha begins later today (Feb 2, 2004).

Government officials have said that Khan is a primary suspect in the alleged transfer of Pakistan's nuclear data to other nations in the late 1980s and early 1990s through the international black market mafia trading in nuclear technology.

The investigation follows information handed over by the UN's (United Nations) International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from Iran, which referred to the possible involvement of Pakistani scientists and officials in selling nuclear secrets for personal profit.

Khan had been questioned regularly since the investigation started and the 66-year-old scientist, who is credited with making Pakistan a nuclear power, was sacked as a Government adviser Saturday (Jan 31, 2004) to "facilitate" the probe.

Five nuclear scientists have been exonerated by investigators while six other individuals, including three officials, are still being interrogated with the probe said to be on the verge of completion.

The names of the four others who had also reportedly confessed were not given.

Khan could not be reached for comment, but Ali Farooq, the son of scientist Dr Farooq Mohammad, who was the first to be detained at the start of the probe, said on Sunday (Feb 1, 2004), "These are just mere allegations. The authorities are trying to put all the responsibility on the scientists."

Opposition parties were furious yesterday at Khan’s sacking and called for protests and an inquiry.