The United States transferred nuclear material out of Iraq last month, the head of the UN atomic watchdog agency told the Security Council on Wednesday.

In a letter to the council, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed El Baradei said the US government advised him of the planned transfer on June 19, citing "security concerns."

The US "requested IAEA to keep the information about the intended transfer confidential for the same security reasons," the letter noted.

On June 30, Washington informed the IAEA that the transfer of some nuclear material stored at "Location C," an area previously referred to by the agency as a nuclear material storage facility south of Baghdad, had taken place a week earlier.

"The transferred material consisted of low enriched uranium in the form of approximately 1.8 tons of uranium enriched to 2.6 percent in uranium-235, as well as some additional 3 kilograms of uranium of various low enrichments," the letter read.

It said that this material is now under US jurisdiction and control, while what remains at Location C is "mostly natural uranium, some depleted uranium and some low enriched uranium waste" subject to IAEA monitoring and verification.

The US government also informed the agency that approximately 1,000 highly radioactive sources, most of them previously stored at Location C, were also transferred to the US, according to the letter.

UN weapons inspectors, including those from IAEA, left Iraq ahead of the US-led invasion of the country in March 2003. They have since been denied entry into Iraq to continue their inspection work by the US-led coalition.

(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2004)