VIENNA, Feb 10: The UN nuclear watchdog's list of Europeans who may have been suppliers to a global atomic black market is getting longer by the day, diplomats said.

"A company in Dubai close to (Dr Abdul Qadeer) Khan appears to have been the main player in the nuclear black market and handled the orders, procurement and shipping," a Western diplomat said.

Diplomats also said the Dubai-based network, which International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei has described as a supermarket for countries seeking nuclear weapons, shopped for many of its supplies in Europe.

The IAEA has already questioned at least two former employees of a German company as part of its investigation into how Iran allegedly skirted sanctions to build a uranium-enrichment gas centrifuge programme, the diplomats said. One German on the list expressed shock at being named and denied being a middleman.

The UN probe identified people or firms from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, South Africa, Japan, Dubai, Malaysia, the United States, Spain, Russia, China and Pakistan.

"The circle of European countries named is going to get wider," predicted one Western diplomat. "There are a number of Germans whose names are being mentioned." However, he said there were so many branches of the black market that it was difficult to say who was doing what. "It's clear that there was a person or persons masterminding the whole thing," the diplomat said. "It was very well organized and I don't think most suppliers knew who the end users were."

THE GERMAN CONNECTION: The black market's key middleman appears to have been a Sri Lankan businessman in Dubai. However, the IAEA is also looking at four Germans who might have helped Iran acquire enrichment technology that could be used in an arms programme.

At least two of the people the IAEA has questioned are former senior employees of the German firm Leybold Heraeus, a leading maker of vacuum technology. Today Leybold is a pared-down unit of the Swiss firm Unaxis AG, called Leybold Vakuum AG, focusing only on vacuum-pump technology.

Only one of the Germans on the IAEA list is now living in Germany. One resides in the Netherlands, another is in Switzerland and the fourth is dead. One diplomat called the man in Switzerland Germany's "most significant" suspect. -Reuters