Pakistan nuclear experts advised Bin Laden

A month before the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US, Osama bin Laden held long discussions with Pakistani nuclear scientists about making weapons of mass destruction, it was reported yesterday.

The Washington Post quoted Pakistani intelligence officials as saying that two retired nuclear scientists, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Abdul Majid, had admitted advising Bin Laden on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Pakistani intelligence described the talks as "academic".

The two scientists, who have been in custody under interrogation for more than two months, worked in the civilian nuclear programme and did not have bomb-making experience, and there remains no direct evidence that Bin Laden succeeded in building a bomb.

Nevertheless, the admissions add to a growing body of evidence that the Saudi-born fugitive and his al-Qaida organisation were trying to build weapons of mass destruction. Documents found in abandoned al-Qaida houses in Kabul included notes on building a crude atomic device.

British officials believe that Mr Mahmood and Mr Majid were not the only Pakistani nuclear experts to have offered their expertise. They say that former technicians from the weapons programme also visited al-Qaida officials to advise them on how to build a weapon.

Under Taliban rule, there was a lively black market in all forms of contraband from the former Soviet Union, reportedly including enriched uranium, and there have been persistent reports of thefts and attempted thefts at former Soviet nuclear sites.

According to Mr Mahmood and Mr Majid, Bin Laden indicated that he had acquired radioactive material from the rebel Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

They describes him as intensely interested not only in nuclear weapons, but in chemical and biological devices.

The two scientists had initially denied meeting him, but reportedly changed their accounts after the CIA provided evidence of their relationship with Bin Laden.

They face charges under Pakistan's official secrets act, which carry a seven-year jail term.

Mr Mahmood worked in the country's civil nuclear programme for three decades, focusing on the process of enriching uranium, but he was forced out of his job two years ago after he made his extremist views public. He had long been known for his eccentric opinions.

In 1980, he described the possibility of harnessing the energy emitted by djinns, fairy-like spirits, by which "a final solution to Pakistan's energy problems would be found".