The fear that Saddam could produce nuclear weapons was cited by congressional Democrats two years ago when they voted to authorize the Bush administration to go to war in Iraq.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham described the previously undisclosed operation, which was concluded June 23, as "a major achievement" in an attempt to "keep potentially dangerous nuclear material out of the hands of terrorists," the AP said.

Ivan Oelrich, a physicist at the Federation of American Scientists, hesitated to characterize the threat posed by Saddam's enriched uranium because few details were provided by the Energy Department.

But he said that the low-enriched uranium taken from Iraq, if it is of the 3 percent to 5 percent level of enrichment common in fuel for commercial power reactors, could be used to produce enough highly enriched uranium to make a single nuclear bomb.

The Energy Department said that in addition to 1.95 tons of low-enriched uranium, "roughly 1,000 highly radioactive sources . . . [that] could potentially be used in a radiological dispersal device [or dirty bomb]" were also transported out of Iraq.

According to Bryan Wilkes, spokesman for the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration, much of the radioactive material - which had been used for medical and industrial purposes - "was in powdered form, which is easily dispersed."

Wilkes said that some of the other radioactive material - including cesium-137, colbalt-60 and strontium - could have been valuable to a terrorist seeking to fashion a radiological bomb.

The Energy Department refused to say to where the material was shipped.

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