WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment, and are not evidence of an alleged clan destine nuclear weapons program, a group of US government experts and other international scientists noted.

¡¡¡¡"The biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving is now eliminated with these conclusions," said the Washington Post,quoting an anonymous senior official who disclosed thestill-confidential findings on Tuesday.

    Scientists from the United States, France, Japan, Britain and Russia met secretly during the past nine months to scrutinize the data collected from Iran by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

    The group successfully matched samples of highly enriched uranium -- a key ingredient in nuclear weapons -- with centrifuge equipment turned over by the Pakistani government recently, according to the front-page report.

    Iran has long contended that the uranium traces were the result of contaminated equipment bought years ago from Pakistan, but the Bush administration had pointed to the material as evidence that Iran was making bomb-grade ingredients, the report said.

    The Post article also said the conclusions will be shared with IAEA board members in a report due the first week of September, quoting US and European officials who agreed to discuss details ofthe investigation on the condition of anonymity.

    US officials have privately acknowledged for months that they are losing confidence that the uranium traces constituted proof of a nuclear weapons program.

    A recent US intelligence estimate found that Iran is further away from making bomb-grade uranium than previously thought, the Post said. Enditem