Nuke issues denied

Syria denied yesterday that one of its representatives to the UN told a panel that an Israeli airstrike hit a Syrian nuclear facility and added that "such facilities do not exist in Syria".

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, quoting an unnamed foreign ministry source, said that Syria had made it clear in the past that there were no such facilities in Syria. It said media reports, apparently based on a UN press release, misquoted the Syrian diplomat, who was not named.

A UN document released by the press office provided an account of a meeting on Tuesday of the First Committee, Disarmament and International Security, in New York, and paraphrased an unnamed Syrian representative.

(China Daily 10/18/2007 page10)