"Unintentionally, scientists from well-known institutions such as Max-Planck Institute and the Nuclear Research Centre, Kalsruhe, helped in the development of the bomb since Pakistani scientists were trained there," the widely read Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported.

It said the goods costing two million DMS had been ordered by a "camaflouged" procuring organisation from the Pakistani nuclear authorities. The illegal dealings have reportedly involved some German businessmen, a fact which has come to light with the trial of a south German businessman Ernst Piffl in the 11th criminal division at Stuttgart's High Court.

Sixty-eight-year-old Piffl, charged with violation of the German Foreign Trade Act, is facing trial to establish whether or not his supplies to Pakistan between1988 and 1993 helped that country become a nuclear power.

Piffl has reportedly denied the charge, saying he had no idea about nuclear technology. The German Government had last week warned its industry against any dealing with a total of 29 Pakistani companies following suspicion of their involvement in clandestine acquisition of nuclear technology for Islamabad's `secret' nuclear weapons programme.

The Federal Economics Ministry had noted that Islamabad was making "intensive efforts" to acquire particular special machines, chemicals and sensitive research equipment for "secret use in the nuclear programme".

The report quoted the public prosecutor in the Piffl case as saying that "credibility of German foreign policy was endangered" due to the supplies of the nuclear technology-related equipment.

The supplies by Piffl related to aluminium semi-finished products, gyroscope systems and spindles, it said, adding Piffl, who made it from a toll apprentice to a millionaire had sent 31 frequencytransformers to Rawalpindi by air on orders of Pakistani embassy in Bonn.

Piffl had explained that it was an approval-free third country business and that the equipment was meant only for the sugar or textile industry. The report chronicles the role of the `father of the Pakistani bomb' Abdul Qadeer Khan in the mid-70s in "pinching highly confidential blueprints for a gas-ultra centrifuge at the German-British-syndicate Urenco", and despatching it to Pakistan.