NCRI claim denied

Pakistan on Wednesday denied an Iranian opposition group, NCRI claim that its nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan had transferred highly enriched uranium to Tehran in 2001. "This is a highly exaggerated account. Somebody has let his imagination run wild," a senior government official told AFP, commenting on the statement in Vienna by National Council for Resistance in Iran official. The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Islamabad had shared the findings of its investigation into the international black market of nuclear proliferation with the international community.
"The government of Pakistan had shared findings of some illicit transfers by international black-marketeers transparently with the people of Pakistan," the official said.
"It has also been co-operating with the IAEA."
President Musharraf gave Khan a conditional pardon and said no government or military body was involved in the proliferation scandal.
Earlier, a senior official of the National Council of Resistance in Iran said Abdul Qadeer Khan delivered in 2001 weapons grade highly enriched uranium to Iran which plans to use it to build a nuclear bomb next year, an Iranian opposition group claimed in Vienna on Wednesday.
"Khan has delivered a quantity of HEU to Iran in 2001", Farid Soleimani, a senior official of the National Council of Resistance in Iran, said at a press conference.
He said the Iranians have also received nuclear weapons designs from the Khan black market network.
Khan gave the Iranians "the same weapons design he gave the Libyans as well as more in terms of weapons design," Soleimani said.
He said that for the Iranian military, 2005 "is the target base for the first bomb".
Paris-based NCRI in 2002 exposed two key nuclear sites Iran had been hiding, including a uranium-enrichment plant in Natanz.
The NCRI is the political arm of the Mujahideen Khalq, which the United States considers a terrorist organisation.
Soleiman said Iran had a parallel nuclear programme, with the military hiding uranium enrichment facilities and showing inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) civilian facilities.