Iran sought weapons info in Netherlands-intelligence

THE HAGUE, Apr 29 (Reuters) Iran was among the countries that tried to obtain intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in the Netherlands last year, the head of the Dutch intelligence service said.

Washington says Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons but Iran says its programme is purely civilian.

''Iran belongs to the group of countries that give cause for worry,'' Dutch secret service chief Sybrand van Hulst said at a news conference yesterday when asked if Iran had sought information on weapons of mass destruction in the Netherlands.

''The service detected some activity with regard to Iran.'' Van Hulst declined to give more details at the presentation of his service's annual report for 2005, a year in which over 400 security threats were detected.

Iran earlier this month said that it had for the first time enriched uranium to a level suitable for use in power plants, was researching a machine to purify it even faster and would forge ahead with industrial-scale fuel production.

Van Hulst said noted the ''threat from espionage has widened over the last years''.

The Netherlands, shaken by the 2004 murder of a filmmaker seen as critical of Islam, has been on a security alert level of ''substantial'' since the bombing attacks in London last July, the second highest in a four-stage warning system.

''Radicalisation, terrorism, a strong development of new technology, new intelligence tasks ... all demand much attention,'' Van Hulst said.

''We reported more than 400 threats to the national coordinator to fight terrorism in 2005 with regard to politicians, buildings, diplomats, public events ... and public transport,'' he said.

The scope of espionage, in which Internet and modern technology have become much more important, has broadened, targeting universities -- with under-cover students at seminars -- international organisations and multinational companies in addition to governments.

He included Russia, China and Pakistan in a list ofcountries rone to spying.

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