Pak opposition halts parliament over nuclear row

The government said for the first time Thursday that Khan had given the key atomic technology to Pakistan's neighbor, which is coming under heavy pressure from the United States over its own nuclear programme.

Washington believes the technology has enabled Iran to enrich uranium to a level required for making nuclear weapons, despite Tehran's insistence that its nuclear program is for peaceful means only.

Opposition lawmakers were angered over the parliament chair's refusal to hold a debate on the statements made Thursday by Inform-ation Minister Sheikh Rashid, which they said were meant only to curry favor with Washington.

"Once again Pakistani leadership is playing in the hand of the United States to serve its sinister motives against Iran," said opposition lawmaker Liaquat Baloch, a leader with the Islamic party alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal.

"This is part of a conspiracy to defame national heroes and our scientists."

Baloch demanded the government stop making "reckless" statements and tell lawmakers when the centrifuges were handed over and who was in control of the military and the government in Pakistan at that time.

Rashid said Thursday that Khan, who fell from grace after he publicly confessed early last year that he passed nuclear secrets to other countries, had passed the centrifuges along to Iran through the black market.

He insisted the government was in no way involved.

Khan admitted to leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya after a government probe into nuclear proliferation.

The investigation was launched in November 2003 after the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, informed Pakistan about the leak.

IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said earlier the agency was "well aware that designs and components were provided by the AQ Khan network to Iran".