Lahore, Sep 12: Libya got its nuclear warhead documents from Pakistan’s disgraced nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan’s supplier network and not China, said a US State Department official.

China gave Pakistan nuclear weapons technology and equipment in the 1980s as part of a strategic effort to counter India’s nuclear weapons, the Washington Times quoted the official, as saying.

Dr Khan then took the Chinese documents and supplied them to Libya as part of a package provided by his private nuclear supplier network. Iran and North Korea were also Dr Khan’s customers, the official said.

The documents are now stored in a secret vault at the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge, Tennessee, facility along with other nuclear equipment given up by the Libyans.

The documents were described as large blueprints that technically are considered primitive and are incomplete but explain how to develop a nuclear device small enough to fit on the tip of a missile.

If the Libyans had tried to detonate a nuclear device based on the design, they likely would have caused a serious accident, the US officials said.

Chinese embassy spokesman Wang Baodong said the issue of the documents was “delicate” but that he had no knowledge of whether the matter was investigated by the Chinese government. (ANI)