JERUSALEM - Mordechai Vanunu, Israel`s nuclear whistleblower who was released from prison a year ago after serving an 18-year sentence, was on Tuesday banned from leaving the country for a further 12 months.
Interior Minister Ophir Pines said he had decided to extend the restrictions for fear Vanunu still had more sensitive information to divulge.
Pines believed that Vanunu "possesses information from the time that he was employed at Dimona (a nuclear reactor in southern Israel) that he could reveal if he was allowed to leave the country," a statement from his ministry said.
The former nuclear technician was released from prison in April last year at the end of an 18-year sentence for lifting the lid on the inner workings of the Dimona plant to Britain`s Sunday Times newspaper.
Along with the travel restrictions, Vanunu was also banned from speaking to foreign journalists without prior authorisation.
He was formally indicted by an Israeli court last month for repeatedly violating the terms of his release.
At a press conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday, called to mark the award of a peace prize from Swedish activists, Vanunu said he was not surprised by the decision to confine him to Israel.
"I didn`t expect them to change their decision," he told reporters. "This Knesset (Israeli parliament) has never discussed nuclear weapons as it should. They never discussed my kidnapping from Italy.
"I wrote from jail to members of the Knesset but they didn`t respond. How could I expect them to change their minds?"
Vanunu has spoken of his desire to start a new life outside Israel and says he has applied for asylum in a string of Western countries but that his applications have been turned down.
While Vanunu became something of an international cause celebre during his time in prison, he is still widely reviled in Israel for converting to Christianity shortly before he was kidnapped while in Italy and subsequently jailed in 1986 after being covertly shipped back to the Jewish state.
Vanunu said that despite being released from prison, he still did not feel like a free man.
"They have released me but I still do not feel free," he said. "I feel that spies are following me in the street... When I am walking I feel that anyone could attack me at any moment.
"They have destroyed my image in Israel because they don`t want anyone to speak freely."
Mairead Maguire, who was awarded the Nobel peace prize for her work in her native Northern Ireland, said at the press conference that Vanunu was no longer a threat to Israel.
"Mordechai has nothing new to reveal," she said. "Israel should open Dimona to the people and tell the people and how many bombs they have."
Israel has never admitted to having nuclear weapons, but is believed to possess an arsenal of about 200 warheads.
04/19/2005 14:11 GMT