‘China gave Pak uranium for bombs’

US officials say they have known about the transfer for decades and once privately confronted the Chinese — who denied it — but have never raised the issue in public or sought to impose direct sanctions on China for it. US President Barack Obama,who said in April that “the world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons”,plans to discuss nuclear proliferation issues while visiting Beijing on Tuesday.

According to Khan,the cargo came with a blueprint for a simple weapon that China had already tested,supplying a virtual do-it-yourself kit that significantly speeded Pakistan’s bomb effort. The transfer also started a chain of proliferation: US officials worry that Khan later shared related Chinese design information with Iran; in 2003.

Although Chinese officials have for a quarter-century denied helping any nation attain nuclear capability,current and former US officials say Khan’s accounts confirm that China provided such assistance.

“Upon my personal request,the Chinese Minister… had gifted us 50 kg of weapon-grade enriched uranium,enough for two weapons,” Khan wrote in a 11-page narrative that he prepared after his January 2004 detention for unauthorised nuclear commerce. “The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon,gave us 50 kg enriched uranium,” he said in a separate account sent to his wife several months earlier.

China last week declined to address Khan’s assertions. Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit described the allegations as “baseless”.