"To comply with international treaties, we have made it clear that we will never develop, use or store nuclear weapons or related items," military spokesman Hang Suey-sheng told AFP.

In response to reports that International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors had found samples indicating plutonium experiments had been carried out on the island two decades ago, Huang said: "We have no knowledge of any programs like that."

Yang Chao-yie, deputy chairman of the cabinet-level Atomic Energy Council, denied Taiwan had conducted plutonium separation programs in the mid-1980's.

Such experiments would indicate Taiwan might have explored the possibilities of developing nuclear weapons.

"We conducted laboratory researches on plutonium's chemical properties to see how it may be used as a fuel. But that academic project was called off around the 1980s after then US President Jimmy Carter advocated against reprocessing plutonium as fuel," Yang said added.

According to reports from Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency had uncovered evidence of the plutonium separation experiments in Taiwan under president Chiang Ching-kuo.

The reports suggested that the experiments were part of a nuclear weapons development which was scrapped shortly afterwards.

IAEA officials refused to comment on the report.

Experts close to the IAEA said that if traces of plutonium had been found, they would in any case be difficult to date.

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