BAGHDAD, December 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - An Iraqi scientist who was involved in the country’s previous nuclear program said he was questioned by U.N. arms experts Tuesday, December 24, in the presence of an Iraqi liaison officer at Baghdad’s technological university.

Speaking to journalists, Professor Sabah Abdel Nour said: “The inspectors asked me for a personal interview and proposed that it be in private.

“I apologized and asked for the presence of a member of the National Monitoring Directorate, who arrived, and the meeting lasted more than an hour.”

The directorate liaises with U.N. inspectors who resumed work in Iraq on November 27 after a four-year break, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

This is the first time the questioning of a scientist has been made public since then.

Hiro Ueki, spokesman for the inspectors, said he was unable to comment immediately, but expected to refer to the matter in his regular press communiqué later in the day.

Asked why the inspectors would want to interview him, Abdel Nour said he had been “linked with the previous nuclear program.”

He said his name figured on a list of Iraqi scientists the inspectors wanted to question, adding that he had been interviewed by representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) before the last round of inspections ended in December 1998.

Asked whether his interviewers had proposed that he travel abroad to be interviewed, Abdel Nour said: “They did not ask me to leave Iraq, and I would have nothing more to say outside Iraq than I said here.

“We have nothing to hide in Iraq.”

Under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, inspectors have new powers to whisk scientists and their families abroad so that they can be interviewed without risk of Iraqi intimidation.

Abdel Nour said the meeting was “cordial” and took place “in an atmosphere of cooperation and professionalism.

“The person who questioned me was professionally very qualified, and the discussion took place in a very civilized manner.”

The president of the university, Mazen Mohammad Ali, told journalists the visit by inspectors lasted three hours, meeting first with him and then with heads of department and professors who were present.

“They visited all the laboratories, and wanted to know through what channels the university obtains its equipment, materials and programs of study,” he said.

“We explained to them the difficulties of obtaining what we need through the U.N. oil-for-food program and the embargo on the entry (into Iraq) of a large number of materials.”

Iraq has been under U.N. trade sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Iraq.

The oil-for-food program, instituted in 1996, allows Iraq to buy food, medicine and other basic necessities in exchange for oil exports.