Malaysia did not need "foreign intervention" in the case of Sri Lankan businessman B.S.A. Tahir, who was detained Friday for involvement in the illicit nuclear network run by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, said Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar.

Asked whether officers from the US Federal Bureau of Investigationwould be allowed to interrogate Tahir, Noh said: "We have arrested him. What is there to interview? We will solve our internal problems our own way, we don't need foreign intervention."

The US on Friday hailed the arrest of Tahir, described by President George W. Bush earlier this year as Khan's "chief financial officer and money launderer", saying it could be a breakthrough in global efforts to dismantle Khan's nuclear network.

Khan, a one-time national hero credited with making Pakistan a nuclear power, has admitted selling nuclear secrets abroad but was pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf.

Asked whether Malaysia would share information extracted from Tahir with the United States, Noh he told reporters at a news conference in this camp where Tahir has begun serving a two-year detention order: "There is no need, but if they ask, we will have to see."

He said Tahir had not been arrested under pressure from Washington, but added that the Sri Lankan had been detained because his actions exposed the country "to possible threats of attack by the big powers and to economic sanctions".

Tahir, who is married to a Malaysian and split his time between business interests here and in Dubai, was arrested Friday at his home in Kuala Lumpur under the Internal Security Act, which allows for two-year detention periods which can be renewed indefinitely.

Tahir, 44, admitted to police that he acted as a middleman for Khan, and gave details of the proliferation scandal, according to an official Malaysian police report handed to the International Atomic Energy Agency in February.

Noh said he had not been detained earlier because investigations were under way, and revealed for the first time Saturday that Libyans involved in that country's nuclear weapons programme had been secretly trained here under an arrangement made by Tahir.

"Since December 2001 (Tahir) has been involved in activities that are illegal at an international level, that are contrary to United Nations treaties and resolutions by involving himself in an illicit international network of nuclear proliferation, especially in Libya," Noh said.

Tahir had deceived a local company into manufacturing centrifuge components for Libya's nuclear weapons programme and had "arranged secretly for technicians from Libya to undergo training on handling quality control machines that were part of Libya's nuclear weapons progamme".

The Malaysian link to the international nuclear blackmarket surfaced earlier this year after it was revealed that a company owned by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's son Kamaluddin had manufactured centrifuge parts seized on a ship headed for Libya last year.

A police probe cleared the company, Scomi Precision Engineering (SCOPE), which said it had been misled about the purpose and destination of the parts, allegedly ordered by Tahir on behalf of Pakistan's Khan.

WAR.WIRE