ElBaradei calls on Syria to allow more inspections (1st Lead)

Nov 27, 2008, 10:25 GMT

Vienna - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei called on Syria Thursday to allow further inspections of the country's alleged nuclear programme.

Last week, Syria's top nuclear official Ibrahim Othman indicated further visits to the alleged reactor site at al-Kibar, which was bombed by Israel last year, were unlikely, and that other sites could not be shown to IAEA inspectors as they were military installations.

Asking for 'maximum transparency' from Syria, ElBaradei told the IAEA board of governors that his agency was capable of developing modalities to protect military secrets, while letting his inspectors carry out their work.

IAEA inspectors first visited al-Kibar in June, after having received intelligence information from the US indicating Syria was in the process of secretly building a reactor, possibly with North Korean help.

ElBaradei on Thursday summed up his report on Syria from last week by saying that 'while it cannot be excluded that the building in question was intended for non-nuclear use, the features of the building ... are similar to what may be found in connection with a reactor site.'

Syria has stated that al-Kibar was a conventional military site and that uranium particles found there by IAEA inspectors must have originated from munitions used by the Israeli air force in September 2007 to destroy the installation.

The head of the IAEA also called on Israel to provide information in order to verify Syria's claim.