The UN's top nuclear official called for a new international regime to destroy the flourishing black market in nuclear technology Thursday, describing current controls as "kaput."
Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said the trade in the technology was now a dangerous "supermarket."
He said recent revelations of clandestine sales to North Korea and Libya were "the tip of the iceberg."
International investigations, led by the CIA and the IAEA but also involving British intelligence (MI6), are being conducted as a matter of urgency into the network in nuclear technology stretching from Europe to Asia, with a hub in the Middle East.
ElBaradei said he knew of people in at least five countries believed to be involved in the nuclear rackets.
His comments came as Abdul Qadeer Khan, the mastermind of the Islamic world's first nuclear bomb, who has admitted trading nuclear information and equipment with other countries, was pardoned on Thursday by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
ElBaradei said Khan's admissions made the issue urgent.
"Khan is the tip of an iceberg for us," he said.
"You need a complete overhaul of the export control system ... This is a number one international security problem we are facing."
He added: "This supermarket is the most dangerous we have seen in years. It is not just Doctor Khan. There are many, in many countries."
He criticized the current regime of export controls as a "gentleman's agreement."
ElBaradei was pessimistic about the chances of combating the trade.
"The spread of nuclear technology and knowledge is out of the tube," he said. "We won't be able to put it back. I am not optimistic, frankly."
Musharraf said on Thursday that international investigators would not be allowed to interview Khan.
But it is almost certain that Pakistan will provide all the information requested by the US and the IAEA on nuclear transfers to Libya, North Korea and Iran.
CIA Director George Tenet, said both the CIA and MI6 had been tracking Khan's network for years.
He said: "Working with our British colleagues, we pieced together the picture of the network, revealing its subsidiaries, its scientists, its front companies, its agents, its finances and manufacturing plants on three continents," Tenet said.
"Our spies penetrated the network through a series of daring operations over several years," Tenet said.
The British government on Thursday night refused to elaborate on the role of MI6 in these operations.
Investigators from ElBaradei's agency are working with national intelligence services to try to crack the contraband networks.
A leading IAEA investigator has recently been to Germany to question retired engineers. A Dubai-based British businessman is also believed to be involved, though the Foreign Office said yesterday it had no knowledge of him.
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