Farid Soleiman, a senior spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, told reporters Wednesday that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was behind the transaction. Soleiman said Khan, who ran a global nuclear black market that supplied Libya and Iran with uranium-enrichment technology, also gave Iran a Chinese-developed warhead design sometime between 1994 and 1996, the Indian Express reported Thursday.

Khan's operation was closed down earlier this year after pressure from the United States. Khan is widely regarded as the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and remains a popular figure among his countrymen.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has been investigating the possibility that Khan gave the bomb design to Iran, but as yet has found no proof. The agency has confirmed that Libya receiving the design from Khan's network in Pakistan.

Diplomats in Vienna who follow the IAEA, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, say the exiled Iranian group has been the best source of information on Tehran's previously undeclared nuclear program.

Copyright 2004 by United Press International