Syria said today it was co-operating fully with a UN inquiry into its nuclear activity but would not go as far as opening up military sites because this would undermine its national security.
Diplomats say the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has asked to examine several Syrian military installations, but the comments from Damascus clearly ruled this out.
The Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog has been investigating Syria since May over US intelligence allegations that it almost built a secret, plutonium-producing reactor before Israel destroyed the site in an air strike a year ago.
Syria - an ally of Iran, which is the subject of a much longer-running, and now stalled, IAEA investigation - has denied having a secret nuclear programme.
The IAEA said last week that preliminary findings from test samples taken by inspectors on a visit granted by Damascus to the desert site in June showed no evidence of one. Syria says all that was there was a disused military building.
Western countries accused Syria at the annual meeting of the IAEA's 145-nation assembly this week of denying the IAEA full access to documentation, officials and sites that they said was needed to get to the bottom of the allegations.
IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei credited Syrian co-operation so far but said he looked for Damascus to show "maximum transparency" and provide all information needed for the agency to draw conclusions.
"We would like to underline that my government is co-operating with the agency in full transparency and will follow suit all along the way," Ibrahim Othman, Syria's Atomic Energy Commission director, told the IAEA's assembly today.
"However, this cooperation will not in any way come at the expense of exposing our military sites or causing a threat to our national security," said Mr Othman.
Diplomats close to the IAEA have said Syria has ignored agency requests to check three military installations believed linked to the alleged reactor site.
Mr Othman also urged the gathering to back Syria's candidacy for a two-year seat on the IAEA's 35-nation, policy-making board of governors, strongly opposed by Western nations since Damascus is under investigation over proliferation concerns.
Reuters