Sunday, February 13 2005 18:26 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: An investigation by Pakistan's ISI agency has revealed that disgraced scientist A Q Khan and his associates sold nuclear codes, materials, components and plans that left his "signature" at the core of Iran's nuclear programme, a leading British daily reported today (Feb 13, 2005).

The outcome of the ISI investigation was figured in private talks in Brussels at the end of last month between European Union officials and senior Ministers from Pakistan and India, 'The Sunday Telegraph' claimed.

The EU officials were told that cooperation between Iran and 68-year-old Khan and associates from his Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) began in mid-90s and included more than a dozen meetings over several years, the report said.

Most of the meetings were between Mohammad Farooq, a centrifuge expert from KRL, and Iranians in Karachi, Kuala Lumpur and Teheran, it said.

Pakistani investigators have told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that centrifuge drawings acquired by Iran closely resemble the design of the first-generation Pakistan-1 centrifuge.

Khan also helped the Iranians to set up a secret procurement network involving companies and middlemen around the world, the report said quoting ISI investigators.

The IAEA told Pakistani officials that centrifuges they had discovered at the Doshan Tapeh military base in eastern Teheran closely resembled the more advanced Pakistan-2 centrifuges, it said.

The IAEA has not yet found conclusive evidence that Iran has a weapons programme and Tehran claims that it "plans to enrich only to the levels that are used to generate nuclear fuel". A CIA report, however, concluded this was a lie.

According to the newspaper, the ISI found that Khan and his associates had approached some potential buyers of weapons of mass destruction, including the then Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.

"Iraqi officers initially agreed but later backed out because they thought it might be a sting operation or a ploy by the US to implicate them," the report said quoting an official.

Quoting western diplomats, the paper said Pakistan is afraid that making Khan available to the CIA directly would lift the lid on an extensive network of its Army officers loyal to Khan.

"This could expose the role of the Chinese in this international black market, or that of other countries that Pakistan cannot afford to antagonise," the paper quoted an official involved in the investigations as saying.