No evidence of nuclear reactor found at Syrian site

SYRIA:INITIAL TESTS of material from a Syrian site bombed by Israel last September do not support US allegations that the target was a clandestine nuclear reactor, unidentified diplomats said on Saturday.

Although more detailed investigations are being made, they said officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) did not expect new findings to contradict these results.

The lack of evidence could halt the agency's investigation into US allegations. Syria denies the site was a reactor and says it was a military facility, empty at the time of the attack on September 6th, 2007. After the Israeli strike Damascus cleared away the rubble and constructed a new building on the site.

IAEA inspectors found no remnants of radioactive trace materials at the site where they took soil samples. However, uranium or plutonium would not have been introduced before a plant was completed.

The inspectors also searched for traces of graphite, an element used to cool the model of reactor the Syrians were alleged to have been building. If the heart of a reactor had been struck, the explosion would have scattered graphite dust over the area.

The US claims the bombed al-Kibar site, located in the Syrian desert near the Iraqi border, was a nearly completed nuclear reactor capable of producing plutonium for bombs and warheads.

Washington argues that the facility had been built with the help of North Korea, which may have been seeking a means to export its nuclear equipment and expertise as a way to evade commitments to end its programme.

However, independent western analysts said last autumn that the Syrians had not installed ancillary tell-tale equipment for power and water supplies necessary for a reactor.

The US also claims that Damascus has other secret nuclear sites to which it continues to deny IAEA inspectors access in line with Syria's obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Although Syria permitted an IAEA team to visit al-Kibar last June, Damascus refused the agency's request to go to other identified sites on national security grounds as they are military bases.

The IAEA also wants to investigate Syrian contacts with North Korea, which is currently threatening to reinstate its decommissioned Yongbyon reactor because Pyongyang claims that the US has failed to deliver on a pledge to provide energy aid in exchange for dismantling its nuclear programme.