LONDON, Oct 8: British intelligence has identified more than 350 companies, university departments and government organizations in eight countries seeking to acquire technology or materials for weapons of mass destruction, a newspaper report said on Saturday.

The confidential report by security service MI5 revealed the scale of the global ‘arms trade supermarket’, The Guardian said.

The document, which identifies the Pakistan embassy in London among organizations seeking nuclear materials or information, was produced to try and prevent British firms inadvertently aiding weapons proliferation.

Titled ‘Companies and Organizations of Proliferation Concern’, it warns against exports to groups in Iran, Pakistan, India, Israel, Syria and Egypt, as well as counselling about front companies in the United Arab Emirates.

The two-year-old report lists 95 organizations in Pakistan as having assisted the country’s nuclear programme, the newspaper said.—AFP