Italian authorities are searching for seven missing bars of enriched uranium they fear may have fallen into terrorist hands, the Italian daily La Repubblicareported today, citing police sources.
The report came two days after US President Mr George W. Bush warned European leaders the al-Qaeda network of suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, of which enriched uranium is a main ingredient.
The seven bars are among 23 that were sold to Zaire by a US company in 1971, Le Repubblicasaid. Eight of those bars disappeared in 1997.
In 1998, customs officials traced the bars to a group of Italians with criminal records.
An undercover customs official, posing as a representative of an Arab state, met several times with the Italians and agreed to buy the eight bars but only managed to buy one of the bars.
The men who attempted to sell the bars were detained but refused to speak, facing relatively light sentences under Italian law at the time.
Italian officials are searching for the missing bars, which are worth about euro 1.3 million each.
AFP