New book claims German urged Iran to buy Pakistan nuke tech

BERLIN - It was a German who approached Iran in the late 1980s to tout the idea of buying nuclear weapons technology from a Pakistani-led black market, according to a newly-released book on the subject.

"The Nuclear Jihadist," by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins, tells the story of how Pakistani engineer Adbul Qadeer Khan, the now disgraced father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, developed an intricate supply network aimed at skirting sanctions and peddling uranium enrichment technology.

Khan's network supplied Libya, Iran and North Korea with nuclear machinery and designs. Tehran's dealings with the network at the time are one of the main riddles the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna is trying to solve.

The book by the U.S. journalists says it was not Khan but German businessman Gotthard Lerch who persuaded Iran in 1987 to consider enriching uranium - a process of purifying it for use in power plants or weapons.

Lerch has been accused by German prosecutors of helping Khan supply Libya with restricted nuclear technology. He was never charged in connection with Iran and a trial on other charges was suspended last year.

One of Lerch's lawyers, Gottfried Reims, dismissed the allegations in the book as "total nonsense" that could have been dreamed up by intelligence agencies.

"There were no meetings, no payments. There's no proof," he said.

Frantz and Collins say a physicist from Iran's Atomic Energy Organization visited Lerch's office in Switzerland in 1987 to buy conventional weapons for Iran's war against Iraq.

Lerch agreed to fill the order but insisted the Iranian watch a promotional film about his nuclear inventory. Lerch had known Khan from his days working at a German vacuum firm that sold Pakistan vacuum pumps for its enrichment program.

Several weeks later the Iranians said they were interested.

Lerch's contacts with Iran came after Saddam Hussein's Iraq began attacking Iranian troops with chemical weapons, which began to turn the tide of the long war against Tehran.

Lerch met the Iranians in Zurich and then arranged a follow-up meeting in Dubai where, the authors write, Iran was expected to pay $10 million as a down-payment for several Pakistani enrichment centrifuges from Khan and designs.

Among the items the Iranians received in Dubai were partial instructions for making the core of an atomic weapon.

According to the book, Lerch received $3 million of the $10 million while Khan got $2 million. The rest went to other middlemen, including another German and an Islamabad dentist.

After he was extradited from Switzerland, Lerch was tried for violating export rules in Germany last year. The trial was suspended and it is unclear if a new trial will take place.

A spokesman for Germany's Federal Prosecutor's Office said he could not comment on the book's specific allegations.

Given that Lerch's contacts with the Iranians took place 20 years ago, the statute of limitations on any export violations would have expired. A German diplomat told Reuters it was unlikely Lerch would ever be charged in connection with Iran.

In September, German engineer Gerhard Wisser pleaded guilty in South Africa to export violations in selling components to Libya and Pakistan that could be used in nuclear weapons.

In 1999, German engineer Karl-Heinz Schaab was convicted of treason for selling nuclear technology to the Iraqi government. The latest U.S. National Intelligence Estimate says Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Tehran says it has no interest in acquiring atomic weapons but is pursuing nuclear power to generate electricity.

Iran and IAEA end latest round of talksIran and a team from a United Nations watchdog ended the latest round of talks in Tehran on Wednesday aimed at answering questions about the Islamic Republic's nuclear work, an Iranian news agency said.

Experts from the two sides held three days of talks as part of an August agreement to clear up suspicions about Tehran's atomic plans, the ISNA news agency said, without saying whether the meeting produced any results.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) delegation arrived in Tehran on Sunday, less than a week after a U.S. intelligence report said Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

Iran denies ever having had such a military program but welcomed the report that contradicted the U.S. administration's assertions that Tehran was actively working on a nuclear bomb.

Iran and the UN body agreed in August on a timetable to answer outstanding questions about nuclear activities which Tehran says are aimed at generating electricity.

Previous rounds of talks dealt with centrifuges used to enrich uranium and other issues.

This week's talks focused on questions about particles of arms-grade enriched uranium found by IAEA inspectors at Tehran's Technical University, ISNA said.

"It is not clear yet whether the discussions on this issue will continue in the future or whether the agency's experts ... have completely received their answers," it said.

Enriched uranium can be used both for fuelling power plants and, if refined much further, for making bombs. But Iran says it wants to refine uranium only as an alternative source of electricity so it can export more of its oil and gas.

The IAEA said in a report last month Tehran was cooperating but not proactively. IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran was making "good progress" in solving questions about its plans.

The UN Security Council has imposed two sets of limited sanctions on Tehran for its refusal to halt enrichment, the part of Iran's program that most worries the West.

Last week's U.S. report released by the 16 intelligence agencies is expected to complicate U.S. efforts to push through new UN sanctions against Iran over its atomic work.

U.S. President George W. Bush said after the report that Iran still remained a danger because it was mastering technology with a military use.