Brussels, 11/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, has told the press that "information published last week [see EUROPE of 7 January, p.5] by diplomatic sources close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are without foundation, and that Egypt is fully in line with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which it signed in 1981". At the headquarters of the IAEA in Vienna, diplomats told Associated Press that the IAEA had been conducting an inquiry in Egypt since last summer on small-scale nuclear experiments which could be linked to the development of nuclear weapons, and which centre on the production of uranium, which could be used to product military-grade plutonium and uranium tetrafluoride (UF4), a stage in uranium enrichment. "These experiments are very small, and date back to the 1950s", continued Mr Gheit. The accusations have been levelled at Egypt by and Israeli-American campaign against the re-election of the Director General of the IAEA, the Egyptian Mohamed El Baradei, for a third consecutive mandate at the head of the organisation.