AP Exclusive: Syria to end nuclear secrecy

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SYRIA_NUCLEAR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-29-14-10-06

NEW YORK (AP) -- In a major turnaround, Syria is pledging full cooperation with U.N. attempts to probe strong evidence that it secretly built a reactor that could have been used to make nuclear arms, according to a confidential document shared with The Associated Press on Sunday.

If Syria fulfills its promise, the move would end three years of stonewalling by Damascus of the International Atomic Energy. Since 2008, the agency has tried in vain to follow up on strong evidence that a target bombed in 2007 by Israeli warplanes was a nearly built nuclear reactor that would have produced plutonium once active.

Syria's sudden readiness to cooperate seems to be an attempt at derailing U.S.-led attempts to have Damascus referred to the U.N. Security Council.

An IAEA report last week said the Vienna-based agency "assesses that the building destroyed ... was a nuclear reactor" - the finding sought by Washington and its allies to push to have Syria reported to the council by a 35-nation IAEA board meeting next month.