Nuclear aid to Syria would be 'wholly inappropriate'

Washington: The United States said it would be "wholly inappropriate" for the United Nations' nuclear agency to give Syria technical help, given allegations the country was trying to covertly build a reactor.

The State Department was responding to reports that UN chief nuclear inspector Mohammad Al Baradei said on Monday that his agency had no legal right to deny Syria assistance for a civilian atomic power project.

For the International Atomic Energy Agency to provide such help, while it is investigating Syria, "would seem to be contradictory, if not ironic," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington.

US intelligence officials suspect Syria was secretly building a reactor with North Korean help last year, before the site was bombed by Israeli forces in September 2007.

Syria, which is a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, denies the US allegation.

The IAEA, which is investigating the site, said in a report last week it shared some of the characteristics of a reactor and that "significant" quantities of uranium particles were found there by inspectors. Syria says the particles came from Israeli weapons.

While complaining about a lack of cooperation from Syria, the UN agency said there was no "conclusive" proof the country was building a reactor at the Al Kibar site.

At a closed-door IAEA committee meeting in Vienna on Monday, Al Baradei said there was no legal basis to curb Syria's membership rights based on unverified accusations, citing unidentified diplomats.

He urged members to approve a technical and economic feasibility study for a nuclear power station in Syria, the news agency said. The study would cost $350,000 and run from 2009 to 2011.

The US, some European Union states and other Western nations favored shelving the project while Syria remained under investigation, Reuters said. China, Russia and developing nations rejected the challenge as "political interference."

The committee will decide later this week whether to back the study, according to the report.