"We keep close tabs on this stuff. None of the uranium is missing," said Anders Joerla, a spokesman for the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI).

SKI has disclosed that the Swedish company Ranstad Minerals, which recycles nuclear waste into uranium, has shown some discrepancies in records on the amount of nuclear waste treated and the amount of uranium it has in store.

Since the 1990s, as much as 100 kilos (220 pounds) of the potentially bomb-making material is unaccounted for, Joerla said.

But he said such descrepencies were often due to calculation errors and there was nothing to indicate that the uranium had actually gone missing.

"When you produce uranium from nuclear waste, it's a very complex process," Joerla told AFP. "It's very difficult to calculate how much uranium is actually in the nuclear products... If you overestimate how much uranium is in the products, records will show less uranium than expected."

Reports in the Swedish press on Wednesday said the US Central Intelligence Agency feared that the uranium that remains unaccounted for may have fallen into "terrorist" hands.

A CIA agent quoted by the Swedish daily Expressen also charged that Ranstad Minerals was a "security risk".

"We have acted at a high level to get the Swedes to stop the company in Ranstad," the agent, whose name was not revealed, told the paper. "It is incredible that the the Swedish security police haven't stopped (this) company."

Joerla however insisted that SKI keeps all dealings with nuclear material under tight supervision.

"We don't have much faith in the CIA," he added. "They couldn't find any (nuclear weapons) in Iraq, and they're not going to find any missing uranium in Sweden."

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