Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday rejected allegations by US President George W Bush that Malaysia was involved in black market nuclear proliferation.

"We are not in any way involved. There is no such thing as Malaysia's participation," Abdullah told a news conference.

In a speech at National Defense University in Washington on Wednesday Bush repeated charges that centrifuge parts for Libya's nuclear weapons uranium-enrichment programme were manufactured in Malaysia.

The company involved, Scomi Precision Engineering (Scope), has admitted making parts found on a ship heading for Libya, but said it did not know their final destination and believed they were for the auto, oil and gas industries.

The company is controlled by Abdullah's son Kamaluddin.

When the charges first surfaced last week, Abdullah announced a police investigation and Scope threw open the doors of its factory to journalists.

Police said later initial investigations had revealed that the company did not commit any criminal offence.

Major player

Abdullah said the man named by Bush as a major player in the nuclear proliferation black market, Sri Lankan businessman BSA Tahir, had indeed placed the order for the parts.

Police had questioned Tahir but had not arrested him, Abdullah said, without indicating whether the businessman was still in Malaysia.

"He was not held or detained by the police but police did meet up with him and asked him a lot of questions.

"He is the one who placed the order for the parts."

Scope was set up in 2001, specifically to produce components for Gulf Technical Industries LLC (GTI) in Dubai in a deal arranged by Tahir, named by Bush as the "deputy" to Pakistan's disgraced scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan in a black market nuclear syndicate.

"To increase their profits, Khan and his associates used a factory in Malaysia to manufacture key parts for centrifuges," Bush said.

"Tahir directed the Malaysia facility to produce these parts based on Pakistani designs, and then ordered the facility to ship the components to Dubai."

Bush was seeking global support for tighter curbs on nuclear know-how, taking aim at North Korea, Iran and black-market sales by Khan. - AFP