New York: American-made computer circuits sold to a trading company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have turned up as detonators in the roadside bombs aimed at US troops in Iraq, a media report said today.

The finding, according to New York Times, set off a clash with Washington last year when the Bush administration cited the diversion of the computer circuits to Iran, and eventually Iraq, as proof that the UAE was failing to prevent American technology from slipping into the wrong hands.

The US officials were quoted as saying that aircraft parts, specialised metals and gas detectors that have a potential military use had also moved through Dubai, one of the emirates, to Iran, Syria or Pakistan. The diplomatic face-off, which drew little attention, prompted the US to threaten tough new controls on exports to the UAE, it said, adding the nation had invested billions to become a global trading hub and had begun a campaign to burnish its image after the uproar in 2006 over a proposal to allow a Dubai company manage some American port terminals.

The administration backed down only after the emirates promised to pass their own export control law. But it is unclear that much has changed nearly a year after the confrontation, the Times said. Yousef al-Otaiba, an adviser to the crown prince of the UAE, was quoted as saying that his country is more closely monitoring goods that it re-exports while blocking items that might help Iran build weapons.

But trade experts and Iranian traders in Dubai said there was little evidence that the new export control law was being broadly enforced, according to the Times. "It has virtually had no effect, to be honest," Nasser Hashempour, deputy president of the Iranian Business Council in Dubai, told the paper. "If someone wants to move something get it to Iran it is easy to be done."

Source : PTI