US clueless on Chinese aid to Pak nuke bomb

The US government has told Congress that it does not know whether China is helping Pakistan develop nuclear explosives. But the administration said it had questions about contacts between Chinese companies and elements associated with Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme.

Last year, China promised not to provide nuclear weapons technology to Pakistan that international inspectors could not check for violations of a 1968 treaty curbing the spread of such technology.

China joined the treaty in 1992, indicating it would refrain from helping countries like Pakistan build a bomb.

''Our current information does not provide a basis for concluding that China has acted inconsistently with that statement,'' the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency said in a report to Congress last week.

Over the past year, the agency said, China has developed a better understanding of its obligations under the treaty.

The state department last year decided not to impose sanctions on China for the sale of ring magnets to Pakistan. The magnets can be used in special centrifuges that enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

The department concluded after discussions in Beijing that China was not aware of what Chinese companies may have done.

Under Secretary of State Peter Tarnoff told Congress in May 1996, ''We have absolutely binding assurances from the Chinese, which we consider a commitment on their part, not to export ring magnets or any other technologies.''

As for other countries, the report claimed Iran remained intent on acquiring a nuclear weapons capability and that Libya had not moved beyond early stages of developing a nuclear weapons programme.

Iran probably has produced agents for biological weapons, and apparently has weaponised a small quantity of those agents, the report said.

On North Korea, the report said international inspectors were not permitted to have continuous access to a nuclear weapons programme facility at Nyongbyon. The report said North Korea's nuclear intentions were a cause for concern even though Pyongyang had agreed to freeze the programme in exchange for safer reactors and energy supplies.

Iraq was accused of trying to preserve technology and expertise in order to make a new effort to develop nuclear weapons.

UNI