ISLAMABAD, March 29: The government on Wednesday rejected as ‘fabricated’ a German magazine report that said Saudi Arabia was working secretly on a nuclear programme with help from Pakistani experts.

“It is a fabricated story and motivated by vicious intentions,” Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

Citing Western security sources, German magazine Cicero said that Pakistani scientists posed as Haj pilgrims in 2003 through 2005 to go to Saudi Arabia in aircraft sponsored by the kingdom.

Between October 2004 and January 2005, some of them took the opportunity to ‘disappear’ from their hotel rooms, sometimes for up to three weeks, German security expert Udo Ulfkotte told the magazine.

According to Western security services, the magazine said, Saudi scientists had been working since the mid-1990s in Pakistan.

The latest issue of the magazine, which will appear on Thursday, quoted US military analyst John Pike as saying that Saudi bar codes could be found on half of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons “because it is Saudi Arabia which ultimately co-financed the Pakistani atomic nuclear programme”.

Dismissing the report, the foreign office spokeswoman said: “Pakistan has a unilateral commitment to non-proliferation.”

“As a responsible nuclear state, Pakistan has taken all measures to strengthen its export control,” she added.—AFP