"Dr Qadeer and four others have accepted that they were involved in leaking nuclear know-how outside Pakistan to groups working for Iran, Libya and North Korea," said the official, who could not be named.

The information was leaked between 1986 and 1993, he added.

It was the first time North Korea had been named in the government's investigation.

The official said an 11-page report carrying the confessions has been submitted to President General Pervez Musharraf.

Asked if there will be criminal proceedings against those who have confessed he said: "It is up to the National Command Authority to take a decision of which the President Pervez Musharraf is the chairman."

It was not yet clear whether Khan had admitted to giving centrifuge designs for uranium enrichment to Iran and Libya, he said.

Another government official said Musharraf may address the nation soon after the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha begins later Monday.

Government officials have told AFP that Khan is a primary suspect in the alleged transfer of Pakistan's nuclear data to other nations in the late 1980s and early 1990s through the international black market mafia trading in nuclear technology.

The investigation follows information handed over by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from Iran, which referred to the possible involvement of Pakistani scientists and officials in selling nuclear secrets for personal profit.

Khan had been questioned regularly since the investigation started and the 66-year-old scientist, who is credited with making Pakistan a nuclear power, was sacked as a government adviser Saturday to "facilitate" the probe.

Five nuclear scientists have been exonerated by investigators while six other individuals, including three officials, are still being interrogated with the probe said to be on the verge of completion.

The names of the four others who had also reportedly confessed were not given.

Khan could not be reached for comment, but Ali Farooq, the son of scientist Dr Farooq Mohammad, who was the first to be detained at the start of the probe, told AFP Sunday, "these are just mere allegations. The authorities are trying to put all the responsibility on the scientists."

Opposition parties were furious Sunday at Khan's sacking and called for protests and an inquiry.

An Islamist alliance alluded to "external pressure", saying the West was uncomfortable with a nuclearised Islamic country, while another party alleged the action could be politically motivated.

The decision to fire Khan, which came after a meeting of the country's political and military leaders chaired by President Pervez Musharraf, shocked a nation accustomed to revering him as a hero.

"It is the ultimate insult to the people of Pakistan," Senator Saadia Abbasi of exiled prime minister Nawaz Sharif's secular Pakistan Muslim League told AFP.

Leader of six-party Islamist alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Mian Muhammad Aslam, told AFP: "MMA will raise this matter in parliament and also launch public protest to compel government to reverse disgraceful actions against our national heroes."

WAR.WIRE