A SYRIAN site bombed by Israel in September was probably a plant for assembling a nuclear bomb, an Israeli nuclear expert said yesterday, challenging other analysts’ conclusions that it housed a North Korean-style nuclear reactor.

NORTH Korea’s top nuclear envoy has told former US officials that Pyongyang wants more than half a million tonnes of fuel oil a year in return for suspending its atomic reactor, a Japanese daily said yesterday.

Foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany plan to approve a package of incentives and penalties meant to reward Iran if it gives up uranium enrichment – and punish it if it doesn’t, diplomats said today.

US administration officials say they remain committed to a diplomatic solution to ensure Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons, but they will not rule out military action as an option, even as they try to calm down talk about military planning.

The UN atomic agency revealed today that Iran received black-market designs to encase weapons-grade uranium and diplomats said they appeared to be part of blueprints for a nuclear warhead.

Pressure is mounting on the United Nations nuclear agency to report Iran to the Security Council as it prepares for an emergency meeting today to ease a stand-off with the Tehran regime.

Sophisticated uranium-enrichment equipment, which could be used in the production of nuclear weapons, has been discovered by United Nations inspectors in Iran, US sources said today.

President George W Bush, under mounting political pressure, will sign an executive order to establish a full-blown investigation of US intelligence failures in Iraq, a senior White House official said.

THE head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency yesterday appealed to Iran to cooperate with additional inspections to prove the peaceful nature of its nuclear programmes.

The mysterious tunnels of Iraq are said to stretch for scores of miles under the Iraqi capital, linking palaces, military strongholds and safe houses for leaders, treasure or weapons of mass destruction.

The key issue in the discovery of 11 warheads in an Iraqi bunker is whether they were intended to be filled with lethal chemical agents or explosives, former UN weapons inspectors said.

IRAQ’S arms dossier outlines its secret bids to build a nuclear weapon in the past and may list countries and companies that helped it, the table of contents suggests.