WASHINGTON, March 3: Hundreds of sophisticated sensors designed to detect nuclear materials have been deployed by the Bush administration at strategic points within the US and at facilities abroad to guard against a possible Al Qaeda attempt to use a nuclear or radiological weapon.

Reporting this on Sunday, the Washington Post said the administration was alarmed by growing hints of Al Qaeda’s progress toward obtaining a nuclear weapon and had placed Delta Force, the elite commando unit, on a new standby alert to seize control of nuclear materials that the sensors might detect.

SCIENTIST: In another report in the same Sunday issue, the Post has resurrected reports about retired Pakistani nuclear scientist Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, who was suspected of having passed on nuclear information to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

Saying four months of investigation by US and Pakistani scientists have failed to yield a definitive explanation of what Dr Mahmood was doing in Afghanistan before the Sept 11 attacks, the Post nevertheless points out that the scientist had failed polygraph tests during his questioning. Dr Mahmood, according to his son, admitted that he had met Osama bin Laden, but said this was to seek money for charitable causes.

Dr Mahmood was arrested by Pakistani authorities along with a fellow former government scientist, Abdul Majid, and some associates from a charity that was founded by Dr Mahmood and which worked in Afghanistan. The charity was investigated last autumn by Pakistani authorities for any links with Osama, and Dr Mahmood is still said to be under house arrest.

CIA director George Tenet went to Islamabad to investigate the Mahmood case and reported to the Bush administration that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme might have been compromised. But the Post says Pakistani officials maintain that Dr Mahmood and Dr Majid did not pass any secrets to Al Qaeda.

LODHI: Pakistan ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told CNN the country had an impeccable record of nuclear custodial safety and not a single incident had been reported of any instance where its nuclear programme could have been compromised. She pointed out that there was complete security and safety of Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

The ambassador said all the 500 or so incidents of leakages of nuclear material had been reported from the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

She also clarified that, contrary to the Post story, Dr Mahmmod had never headed Pakistan’s nuclear programme and indeed had nothing to do with it.