An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokesman cast doubt on the possibility that Iraq could have obtained uranium from Africa to make nuclear weapons.
"We have safeguards in Africa on nuclear material and know when it goes missing," IAEA spokesman Mr Mark Gwozdecky said.
He was reacting to British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair's claim yesterday that Iraq has sought "significant quantities" of uranium from the African continent.
In 1988, Italian police arrested 13 men trying to sell an irradiated fuel rod to the mafia which had been stolen from a nuclear reactor in the Congolese capital Kinshasa.
The Financial Timesyesterday quoted nuclear industry sources saying a second uranium fuel rod that went missing from the Kinshasa reactor has never been found.
Mr Gwozdecky said these rods were in any case "low enriched uranium of no use in making a weapon. They would be a poor choice even for a dirty bomb."
"The content of a single fuel element is minuscule, not the significant quantity that is alleged in the Blair dossier," Mr Gwozdecky said.
He said there is very little enriched uranium, the highly reformed type used in making atomic bombs, in Africa. What exists there is "under safeguards. If it goes missing we know of it in a short amount of time."
He said the safeguards covered the Kinshasa reactor. Mr Gwozdecky said the IAEA had "no information either way" on reports that members of al-Qaeda had tried to buy uranium from South Africa, which had an advanced program to produce enriched uranium but dismantled its weapons capability in 1991.
AFP