WASHINGTON, Oct 4: An Indian research paper, being distributed in the United States to implicate Pakistan in nuclear proliferation, ends up exonerating the Pakistani establishment of any involvement.

The article, prepared by the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, was distributed days after the US presidential debate in which both President George W. Bush and his challenger John Kerry said they considered nuclear proliferation as the most serious threat to US interests.

The paper, partly published in The Washington Times on Monday, aims at reviving the controversy involving the so-called A.Q. Khan network of nuclear proliferators at the peak of the US presidential election.

In doing so, the distributors hope to increase pressure on Pakistan by making the nuclear controversy an election issue. The paper claims that Iran made several attempts to buy nuclear technology from Pakistan, offering even to finance Islamabad's nuclear programme.

The Indian research foundation claims that Iran first showed interest in buying nuclear technology from Pakistan in 1987, when Gen Zia-ul-Haq was still ruling the country. But it acknowledges that Gen Zia not only declined the Iranian offer, he also ordered his subordinates not to yield anything substantial at any cost.

Iran made the second offer between 1991 and 1992 when, according to the Indian researchers, Dr A.Q. Khan made several visits to Iran. At this stage, Iran was offering $3.2 billion to Pakistan in exchange for the transfer of nuclear technology.

To support its claim, the Observer Research Foundation quotes a news item published in Pakistani newspapers on Dec 20, 1994. But it does not quote the full report which also said that Pakistan had declined the offer.

The research paper tries to link several retired military officials from Gen Asad Durrani to Gen Aslam Beg to the Khan network but fails to provide any evidence, substantial or otherwise.

It quotes a former federal minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, as saying that Gen Beg told him Iran had offered between $6 and $10 billion for buying nuclear technology from Pakistan.

According to the Indian researchers, former US ambassador to Pakistan, Robert Oakley, has also referred to having a similar conversation with Gen Beg. But neither Mr Oakley nor Chaudhry Nisar are quoted as saying that Pakistan accepted the offer.

The paper claims that Aizaz Jaffri, one of Dr A.Q. Khan's business associates and the scientist's now estranged son-in-law Noman Shah used to manage his secret accounts in Dubai.

Mohammad Farooq, one of Dr Khan's assistants and a centrifuge expert, also played a key role in the Khan network, travelling to Iran and Libya on behalf of Mr Khan, the paper said.

Pakistani and US intelligence officials debriefed Mr Farooq in November last year who provided them detailed information about the finances of the network and its secret accounts, the Indian research institute claimed.

According to the research paper, millions of dollars were secretly deposited into the accounts that members of the Khan network maintained in Dubai. Mr Shah, Dr Khan's former son-in-law, operated one of the main Dubai-based front companies used by the Khan network.

It was Mr Shah who set up a supplier firm for Dr Khan in Dubai and worked closely with his father-in-law until he divorced Dr Khan's daughter Dina after four years of marriage in 1994, the paper claimed.

Proliferation: clarification