Smugglers had design for advanced warhead

Washington: An international smuggling ring that sold bomb-related parts to Libya, Iran and North Korea also managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon, according to a draft report by a former top UN arms inspector that suggests the plans could have been shared secretly with any number of countries or rogue groups.

The drawings, discovered in 2006 on computers owned by Swiss businessmen, included essential details for building a compact nuclear device that could be fitted on a type of ballistic missile used by Iran and more than a dozen developing countries, the report states.

The computer contents were destroyed by Swiss authorities under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is investigating the ring previously led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. But UN officials cannot rule out the possibility that the blueprints were shared with others before their discovery, said the report's author, David Albright, a nuclear weapons expert who spent four years researching the network.

Small but lethal

"These advanced nuclear weapons designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world," Albright wrote in a draft report about the blueprint's discovery. A copy of the report was provided to The Washington Post.

The smuggling ring was previously known to have provided Libya with information for a nuclear bomb. But the blueprints found in 2006 are far more troubling, Albright said in his report. While Libya was given plans for an older and relatively unsophisticated weapon, the newly discovered blueprints offered instructions for building a compact device, the report said.

The lethality of such a bomb would be little enhanced, but its smaller size might allow for delivery by ballistic missile.

"These would have been ideal for two of Khan's other major customers, Iran and North Korea," wrote Albright, now president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. "They both faced struggles in building a nuclear warhead small enough to fit atop their ballistic missiles, and these designs were for a warhead that would fit."

'Khan affair over'

The Pakistani government did not rebut the findings in the report but said it had cooperated extensively with UN investigators. "The government of Pakistan has adequately investigated allegations of nuclear proliferation by A.Q. Khan and shared the information with IAEA," Nadeem Kiani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, said. "It considers the A.Q. Khan affair to be over."