Friday, May 26 2006 11:02 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: US lawmakers have called for the reopening of a probe into a nuclear smuggling network led by disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan amid concern she could have supplied Iran with nuclear weapon designs.

Pakistan said earlier this month that the probe into the Khan matter was closed and that he would remain off limits to foreign investigations despite requests by the United States and the global nuclear watchdog agency IAEA to interview him.

While President George W Bush's administration has said that Pakistan had taken all actions necessary to unravel the network and to uncover all of its secrets, lawmakers are unconvinced.

"We have given Pakistan a get-out-of-jail-free card on the single worst case of proliferation in the past 50 years," Democratic Representative Gary Ackerman told a House of Representatives hearing Thursday on Khan's smuggling ring.

Ackerman and several other lawmakers pushed Washington to pressure Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the US war on terror, to get to the bottom of the issue.

Given the 'grave consequences' of Khan's acts and his relevancy to the current Iranian and North Korean crises, the US and the international community should expect more from Musharraf, said Republican legislator Ed Royce, who chaired the hearing by a House panel dealing with international terrorism and nonproliferation.

"Some question whether the A Q Khan network is truly out of business, asking if it's not merely hibernating.

"We'd be foolish to rule out that chilling possibility," Royce said.