Monday, March 14 2005 12:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Vienna: Pakistan is to send centrifuge parts to the UN atomic agency to determine the origin of uranium contamination found in Iran, crucial to alleviating concerns over Tehran's nuclear plans, diplomats said yesterday (Mar 13, 2005).

Pakistan last week admitted that Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced scientist who fathered the country's nuclear weapons program, had provided Iran with centrifuges.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed El Baradei has stressed that Pakistan and other countries involved in an international nuclear black market that supplied Iran must cooperate if his agency is to answer US charges that Tehran is secretly developing atomic weapons.

"The centrifuge parts will be sent to the International Atomic Agency laboratory in Seibersdorf" near Vienna, a Western diplomat close to the IAEA told agencies.

The IAEA is investigating contamination by microscopic particles of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) found at a workshop in Tehran, at a pilot enrichment plant at Natanz and at other sites where there were centrifuges.

Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium to make what can be fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but also the explosive core of atom bombs.

Iran, which says it is strictly developing a peaceful nuclear energy program, claims the HEU-contaminated equipment came from imported equipment and not from enrichment activities in Iran.

El Baradei has reported that Iran hid sensitive nuclear activity for almost two decades but says, "The jury is still out" on whether Tehran has a covert atomic weapons program.

He said in a report in November that data "to date tends, on balance, to support" Iran's claim that the HEU traces found by IAEA inspectors came from contaminated equipment.

But El Baradei said that his agency continued to investigate whether the contamination might be due to undeclared enrichment activities by Iran, or from imported uranium.

The diplomat said that the centrifuge parts being shipped from Pakistan should come from the same set of centrifuges that were used at the Tehran workshop, where the highest HEU level was found, "otherwise it wouldn't serve any purpose".

Another diplomat close to the IAEA said that the agency would be "happy when the parts actually arrive" as the investigation was a very delicate matter.

Khan, who worked with an international nuclear black market, was arrested in Pakistan last year but the Government is not allowing the IAEA or any foreigners access to him.

The Government has also not permitted IAEA inspectors to check for traces of HEU at sites in Pakistan where equipment is stored.

IAEA technicians will be checking for HEU contamination and to see whether the "signature" or isotope configuration of the contamination at the sites matches that of the parts from Pakistan.