New York: A Q Khan is "at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden," former director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) George J Tenet was today (Nov 24, 2004) saying, even as the US spy agency asserted that the father of Pakistan's nuclear programme may have transferred "advanced" weapon component designs to Iran.

Reporting the remarks of Tenet made to a private group recently in a closed-door meeting, the 'New York Times' said that it had obtained a tape recording of the speech.

In that speech, Tenet said the CIA's role in tracing "the hidden network that stretched across three continents" had stretched back to 1997 and that he had kept it secret in the Government from everyone except President Bill Clinton and President George W Bush.

The paper also quoted CIA's semi-annual "Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions" as saying proliferation network led by Khan provided Iran's nuclear programme with "significant assistance," including the designs for "advanced and efficient" weapons components.

The report suggests that American intelligence agencies now believe that the bomb-making designs provided by the network to Iran in the 1990's were more significant than the US Government has previously disclosed, the paper said.

Until now, American officials have referred publicly only to the Khan network's role in supplying designs for older Pakistani centrifuges used to enrich uranium. But the Times said American officials have also suspected that the Khan network provided Iran with a warhead design as well. The CIA report is the first to assert that the designs provided to Iran also included those for weapons "components".