Pakistan said on Monday, it was cooperating with the UN nuclear watchdog but rejected reports that it would hand over used centrifuge components to help solve a key mystery surrounding Iran’s atomic programme.Diplomats familiar with a UN investigation into Iran’s nuclear programme said on Sunday that Islamabad had agreed to hand over the parts so that UN inspectors could compare them with machinery sold to Iran by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb programme.However, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said on Monday that Pakistan was cooperating with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) but dismissed the reports that Islamabad would hand over centrifuges. ‘‘Pakistan has not been asked to give the centrifuges, nor will Pakistan do so,’’ he told a regular weekly news conference on Monday.Jilani did not elaborate on the nature of the cooperation with IAEA but added that it would be strictly guided by Pakistan’s national interest and the need to protect strategic capabilities. —Reuters
