Sunday, January 8 2006 11:36 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Britain has allowed the export to Iran of a cargo of radioactive material that experts believe could be used by Tehran in a nuclear weapons programme, a media report claimed today (Jan 08, 2006).

The disclosure by 'The Observer' newspaper has prompted calls for an inquiry into how the international trade in such compounds is controlled.

On August 31, a truck carrying 1,000 kg of zirconium silicate supplied by a British firm was stopped by Bulgarian customs at the Turkish border on its way to Tehran, after travelling 2,400 km from Britain, through Germany and Romania, without being stopped, the report said, adding zirconium can be used as a component of a nuclear programme.

According to one expert, it is used in nuclear reactors to stop fuel rods corroding and can also be used as part of a nuclear warhead. The metal can be extracted from zirconium silicate. It is because the compound can be used for military purposes that its trade is usually tightly controlled.

The fact that a British firm was allowed to sell the compound without scrutiny will raise questions for the British government over its controls on sensitive materials.

Intelligence documents disclosed last week in the Guardian detailed how Iran is allegedly creating agencies and middlemen to procure equipment and know-how in Europe in a covert attempt to build nuclear weapons.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected this week to order the resumption of tests on machinery that can be used to make weapons-grade uranium, the newspaper said.