AMMAN, Aug 16 (AFP) - Jordan said Monday it was preparing to invite UN experts to carry out independent surveys in the kingdom to eliminate any fear of contamination from the Dimona nuclear plant in neighbouring Israel.
At a weekly news conference, government spokeswoman Asma Khodr insisted that Jordan was free of any contamination from the aging Israeli reactor and reiterated that radiation levels were normal.
"In 2001, we asked a group of visiting experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency to carry out a survey and their tests matched those of our own experts and showed that our surveys were clean," Khodr said.
"In order to eliminate any fear or doubts, we are now ready to ask for a new survey," she added.
Her comments came a day after parliament's health and environment committee said it would formally ask the government to invite experts from the UN nuclear watchdog to Jordan.
They also came a day after the IAEA's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, said in Cairo that his agency was "prepared to send observers to Egypt and Jordan to monitor whether there is any evidence of nuclear radiation emanating from Israel."
But ElBaradei stressed that the question of radiation from Dimona "should not be linked to the observation by Israel of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty nor inspection by the IAEA of Israel's nuclear activity".
Fears of contamination from Dimona were raised in July by nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician who served an 18-year prison sentence in Israel for revealing secrets about the plant.
Vanunu was quoted as saying by the Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat that the 40-year-old reactor in Israel's Negev desert could constitute a "second Chernobyl", putting at risk Middle Eastern countries.
Jordan should test residents of border areas to check they have not already been exposed to radiation, Vanunu said.
Khodr played down the threat on July 26 and said the kingdom was taking all necessary precautions to ensure that it was not being contaminated.