The UN atomic watchdog should focus on the distributors of nuclear technology as much as the recipients, like Iran, said foreign secretary Shyam Saran

"With respect to the Iran nuclear issue, we welcome Iran's cooperation with IAEA in the accounting for previously undeclared activities," Saran told a conference in New Delhi on nuclear non-proliferation.

"... but it is important that remaining issues which involve Pakistan-based A.Q. Khan are satisfactorily clarified as well.

"We see no reason why there should be an insistence on personal interviews with Iranian scientists but an exception granted to a man who has been accused of running a global 'nuclear Wal-Mart'," he said.

Iran was put on notice last month by the IAEA, which warned the Islamic nation it would be hauled before the UN Security Council if it persisted with its uranium enrichment activities.

The United States suspects Iran is using its nascent nuclear power program to develop the capability to build nuclear weapons, a suspicion Tehran says is unfounded.

India, which voted in favour of the IAEA motion paving the way for Iran's referral to the Security Council, has been subdued in its criticism of arch-rival Pakistan, whose nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan last year admitted to having leaked nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

New Delhi, which began a peace process with Islamabad in January 2004, demanded an investigation into the illegal transfer of nuclear secrets but refrained from criticising its nuclear rival over its lenient treatment of Khan.

Khan became a national hero after he helped Pakistan come out of the nuclear closet in May 1998, within days of India conducting five atomic tests.

After Khan made a public confession last year, Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf gave him a conditional pardon. Islamabad has consistently refused to allow the IAEA to question Khan about the nuclear black market.

In March, Pakistan confirmed that Khan provided Iran with centrifuges but again insisted the government was not involved in the deal. Centrifuges are needed to enrich uranium for atomic warheads.

Related Links
SpaceDaily
Search SpaceDaily
Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express