Madrid - Spain's military secret service, CESID, has learned that Algeria will be able in two years to produce weapons-grade plutonium, a key ingredient for making atomic bombs, a Spanish newspaper reported yesterday.
A CESID report stated that Algeria, despite having signed the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty, had forged ahead with a nuclear programme aided by China and Argentina that far exceeded its civilian needs, El Pais reported.
In Algiers, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdelaziz Sbaa told Reuters: "This information is completely false and is mere fantasies. Algeria respects all its obligations. All our nuclear facilities are for peaceful and civilian purposes."