US trying to remove weapon grade uranium from Pak

NEW YORK: Concerned that enriched uranium might be used to make a rogue nuclear device, US is involved in top level secret efforts to shift bomb making material from Pakistan, leaked US diplomatic cables have revealed.

The effort has been on for years, the 'New York Times' quoting documents released by internet whistleblower said, amid reports that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal continues to be a topic of sensitive concern for Washington.

A leaked cable reveals that since 2007, the US has mounted a highly secret effort, so far unsuccessful, to remove from a Pakistani research reactor highly enriched uranium that American officials fear could be diverted for use in an illicit nuclear device, the Times said.

The paper said that Washington's concern grew as Taliban militants embarked upon a nation wide bombing campaign across the country.

The WikiLeaks has made public US Ambassador Anne Patterson as saying that Islamabad was refusing to give dates for an inspection by American technical experts of Pakistan's nuclear facilities.

An anonymous Pakistani official was quoted as saying that if the local media got word of the fuel removal, they would portray it as US taking Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

The diplomatic cables from the past three years which were procured by WikiLeaks provide an unprecedented look into secret diplomatic episodes and behind- the-stage bargainings like the standoff with Pakistan over nuclear fuel, the New York Times reported.

The confidential cache of US cables released to the paper by the whistleblower website, were described by the Times as the one that unlocks the secrets of American diplomacy.

The newspaper made public the details contained in the documents yesterday, some time after WikiLeaks said its website was under a cyber attack.

The documents were made available to several news organisations by online by WikiLeaks, which will also post the documents on its own website.