US presses UN to broaden nuclear search in Syria: report

US presses UN to broaden nuclear search in Syria: report
WASHINGTON, May 28 (AFP) May 29, 2008
The United States is pressing UN inspectors to broaden a search for secret nuclear sites in Syria to check if it has other hidden facilities beyond an alleged reactor destroyed by Israel, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

US officials have given information on three suspect sites to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, which is negotiating with Syria for permission to conduct inspections in the country, the Post said, citing US government officials and Western diplomats.

US officials want to know if the suspect sites were support facilities for the alleged Al Kibar reactor, which Washington says was built with North Korean help, the daily said.

Officials declined to describe the suspect sites or discuss how they were identified, the newspaper said.

Western governments have long wanted to identify possible locations for a facility in Syria that might have supplied fuel rods for a reactor, it said.

The Al Kibar site, while described as nearly operational when it was bombed, had no clear source of uranium fuel needed for operation, the Post said, citing US intelligence officials and diplomats familiar with the site.

The US government charges that the reactor, which was destroyed in an Israeli air raid on September 6, had a military purpose.

Syria has denied the US allegations and has promised full cooperation with the UN watchdog.

CIA Director Michael Hayden told the Post that the intelligence community's insight into Syria's nuclear ambitions had deepened since the Israeli raid.

"Do not assume that Al Kibar exhausted our knowledge of Syrian efforts with regard to nuclear weapons," Hayden was quoted as saying.

"I am very comfortable -- certainly with Al Kibar and what was there, and what the intent was. It was the highest confidence level. And nothing since the attack last September has changed our mind," he said.

"In fact, events since the attack give us even greater confidence as to what it was."

Hayden predicted that Syria would "almost certainly attempt to delay and deceive" the IAEA.

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