ISLAMABAD, March 25: Pakistan said on Friday it had received a formal request from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for providing samples of nuclear centrifuges. The confirmation came from Foreign Office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani when he was contacted by Dawn for comments on President Pervez Musharraf’s disclosure on Thursday in an interview with a private TV channel that Pakistan was considering dispatching parts of centrifuges to Vienna for scrutiny. “The president’s statement is in the context of a request received from the IAEA (made sometime back) that some components of a discarded old centrifuge may be sent to the agency in Vienna for analysis need in connection with the agency’s investigation into the contamination issue with regard to Iran,” Mr Jilani maintained.

At his March 14 news briefing at the Foreign Office, Mr Jilani had categorically stated that Pakistan had not received any request from the IAEA for centrifuges samples and if asked the government would not accede to it.

“We have not been asked to hand over any centrifuges to the IAEA nor will Pakistan do so,” he had said while rejecting media reports that Pakistan had agreed to provide some samples of centrifuges to the agency.

He had, however, mentioned that Pakistan’s efforts had been ‘greatly appreciated’ by the IAEA. On Friday, the spokesman remained evasive on the question of when the request was received from the IAEA.

However, Dawn learnt through its own sources that the request had been made ‘some time’ back. It was in part corroborated by the spokesman’s own statement on Friday that “the agency had earlier requested for conducting the analysis of the parts in Pakistan. However, in accordance with our policy not to allow a visit to our sensitive facilities the agency was informed that Pakistan could consider sending some parts to Vienna”.