April 25, 2008 - The US claims North Korea has helped Syria build a covert nuclear reactor. A White House spokesman says Washington has good reason to believe the reactor, which was destroyed by Israeli air strikes in September last year, was not intended for peaceful purposes.

The US insists it did not give the green light for Israel to strike the suspected nuclear reactor. Syria's ambassador to the UN, Bashar Ja'afari denies allegations of North Korean nuclear know- how being secretely used in his country:"We said it many times in the past, there was no Syrian-North Korean cooperation whatsoever in Syria, and we denied these rumours and this is what I can say concerning this issue."

Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House of Representatives intelligence committee has sharply criticized the Bush administration saying it has no credibility on North Korea. He expressed his anger after intelligence officials briefed US lawmakers about the Syrian nuclear facility: "They have not given us a good reason why they waited eight months.

They didn't give us a good reason in September. They didn't give us a good reason in October. And they haven't given us a good reason here in April as why now and why they couldn't have done so.This could have and should have happened eight months ago," he said.

The White House claims the construction of the nuclear reactor was a dangerous and potentially destabilizing development for the region and the world. It also alleges the reactor was capable of producing plutonium used in nuclear weapons.