VANDERBIJLPARK, Sept 8: Charges have been withdrawn against a South African businessman arrested last week for his alleged links to a global nuclear smuggling ring, a senior prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Johan Meyer, 53, was arrested on Thursday last week and was charged a day later with three counts of possessing sensitive nuclear-related equipment and of illegally importing and exporting nuclear material.

"I can confirm that the charges have been withdrawn," said Anton Ackermann, the senior prosecutor in the case. Asked why the charges against Meyer were dropped at the Vanderbijlpark regional court, some 80 kilometres south of Johannesburg, Ackermann said: "We are not giving any reasons at this stage."

Officials at the court also confirmed that the charges had been scrapped. Meyer appeared in court on Wednesday morning and unexpectedly withdrew his bail application. State prosecutor Chris MacAdam said the case was "postponed for further investigation".

Meyer's lawyer, Heinrich Badenhorst, did not want to comment on the report that charges had been dropped. He declined to say whether his client was considering a deal with the state.

South African investigators have confiscated 11 shipping containers containing components of a uranium enrichment plant from Meyer's business premises. The crates were taken to Pelindaba, west of Pretoria, once the home of South Africa's nuclear weapons programme under apartheid.

A Western nuclear expert has said that the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency was exploring suspected links between Meyer and Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan aimed at helping Libya develop an atomic weapons programme. -AFP