WASHINGTON: An "underworld" of mostly European technology traffickers leaked secrets to states seeking nuclear weapons, President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview.

"We discovered there is an underworld of people who have been manufacturing (nuclear technology)," Musharraf told The Washington Post. Although he said some Pakistanis were involved, "most of them come from Europe". "Pakistan has not at all been charged. Some individuals in Pakistan and also some Europeans have been charged."

"It started with Iran giving the names of some individuals who helped them get nuclear designs or whatever they had. These names included some Pakistanis and a number of Europeans. I got [the list] from the IAEA [the International Atomic Energy Agency] and then we started our investigation. We discovered there is an underworld of people who have been manufacturing. Most of them come from Pakistani authorities are investigating allegations that some of its top nuclear scientists, including the creator of the country’s first atomic bomb, sold nuclear secrets to Libya and Iran."

"Pakistan has taken steps to stop leaks of nuclear secrets, Musharraf said in the interview. "There are strong custodial controls in Pakistan and there is no possibility of a leakage," he said told the Post.

"Before, there was a covert program for maybe 30 years and there was a lot of autonomy given to the organization and individuals running the (country’s nuclear programme). There was a lot of chance for leakages. Now it’s no longer covert. It’s overt."

Musharraf said only individuals, and not the Pakistani government, were involved in the affair. "These are individuals and our investigation has concluded that no government of Pakistan - and I don’t have a soft spot for the governments of (former prime ministers) Benazir (Bhutto) and Nawaz (Sharif) — sanctioned or authorised anyone to proliferate," said Musharraf, who became the country’s head of state after a 1999 coup d’etat.

Meanwhile, President Musharraf said, "Al-Qaeda is on the run, they are hiding" on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Pakistan Army is pursuing them, as well as the Taliban supporters in South Waziristan. The president pledged to crack down on extremist groups operating in Pakistan.

Asked who were the brains behind assassination attempts against him, the president said: "We don’t know that yet." Assenting that it was al-Qaeda, the president added: "There are some Arabs involved - some non-Pakistanis. Al-Qaeda comes mostly from the Arab world...We are sure that one person got an instruction from an individual who was a non-Pakistani. We don’t have that man. When we get him, he will tell us who ordered him to do it. Maybe it was Zawahiri."