The UN nuclear watchdog has said it will investigate US accusations that Syria secretly built a nuclear reactor with North Korean help.
Syria, which denies the allegations, accused Washington of involvement in an Israeli attack on Syria in September that the United States says struck the site of a suspected atomic reactor.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the US intelligence allegations against Syria would be investigated.
"The Agency will treat this information with the seriousness it deserves and will investigate the veracity of the information," Mr ElBaradei said.
He confirmed Washington had handed over information which said that a Syrian installation destroyed by an Israeli air strike in September was a not yet completed atomic reactor. "According to this information, the reactor was not yet operational and no nuclear material had been introduced into it," he said in a statement.
But he said Syria would have been obliged under its non-proliferation safeguards agreement with the Vienna-based UN watchdog to inform it in advance of any planning and construction of a nuclear facility.
Mr ElBaradei said he "deplores the fact" that the United States had not turned the information over to the IAEA on the reactor, said to have been launched in 2001, in a "timely manner to enable us to verify its veracity and establish the facts".
"In light of the above, (I) view the unilateral use of force by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the non-proliferation regime," he added.
Syria has accused the United States of involvement in the Israeli attack. "The US administration was apparently party to the execution" of the September raid by Israeli warplanes on eastern Syria, a statement said. It did not give details.
A US official said yesterday that Washington did not give Israel any "green light" to strike the area.
Israel is widely believed to have assembled the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal at Dimona, a plant out of bounds to foreign inspection.
The United States yesterday presented what it described as intelligence showing that North Korea had helped Syria build a suspected nuclear reactor.
The White House said the United States was convinced that North Korea had helped Syria to build a secret nuclear reactor. The comment came after CIA officials briefed politicians about the raid.
The Syrian statement repeated Damascus's denial of involvement in nuclear activity and dismissed Washington's accusations as part of a campaign to discredit the Damascus government.
"The Syrian government regrets the campaign of lies and falsification by the US administration against Syria, including allegations of nuclear activity," it said.
Under a deal North Korea struck with five regional powers, it had until the end of last year to disclose a complete list of its fissile material and nuclear weaponry as well as answer US suspicions of enriching uranium and proliferating technology.