ISLAMABAD, June 17: Top nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan on Tuesday denied selling blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon to Iran or North Korea, telling AFP that western countries were to blame.

Mr Khan’s comments came a day after a former arms inspector said in a report that the United States and the UN atomic watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency must be allowed to question Mr Khan to learn if he sold the plans.

“This is all a lie there is no truth in this. It is total bullshit,” Khan told AFP by telephone from his Islamabad villa. “It’s pure lies and nonsense. It’s part of America’s campaign to pressure Pakistan,” Khan told Reuters by telephone.

“The Western countries are suppliers of the technology, they sold it and they are the proliferators.... Why don’t they publish juicy stories about Israel?

There is not a single word about Israel on the nuclear issue,” he added.

Former UN arms inspector David Albright said on Monday, after details of his draft report appeared in US newspapers, that there was a danger that Mr Khan might be released without having to answer questions about the sensitive blueprints.

The plans show how to build a warhead compact enough to fit on a ballistic missile.

“Khan may be released from house arrest. And we may never get to the bottom of this,” Albright told CNN television. “So I think it’s very important that we start to put pressure on the governments involved in this to find a way to get to the bottom of it.”

Mr Khan was pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf in 2004 after making a televised statement admitting to passing nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya but has not been allowed out in public.

However, after Musharraf’s allies lost general elections in February, Mr Khan retracted the confession and said that it was forced, while asserting he merely gave Tehran and Tripoli advice on where to get atomic know-how.

The new government has recently relaxed restrictions on Mr Khan, including allowing him to meet friends at a scientific institute and take phone calls, although he remains effectively confined to his house.

“The statement is just aimed at putting pressure on (the) Pakistan government. The story came when there were talks about removing restrictions on me,” said Mr Khan, who was diagnosed with prostrate cancer two years ago.

“We never prepared (such blueprints), we are not the designer, we are not the proliferators,” Mr Khan said. But Albright said that files found on computers by Swiss authorities prosecuting three members of Mr Khan’s network contained information about the compact nuclear warheads.—Agencies