Reuters reports from Georgia (the nation in the Caucasus, not the US state) that local authorities have confirmed they broke-up a plot by a Russian citizen to sell highly enriched uranium, the stuff of which nuclear explosions are made.

Georgian special services have foiled an attempt by a Russian citizen to sell weapons-grade uranium for $1 million (508,000 pounds) in the Georgian capital, a senior Interior

The official said Oleg Khintsagov, a resident of Russia's North Ossetia region, was arrested in early 2006 and a closed court soon after convicted him to 8 1/2 years in prison.

Khintsagov was detained as he tried to sell uranium-235 to an undercover Georgian agent posing as a member of a radical Islamic group, said Shota Utiashvili, who heads the ministry's information and analytical department.

"They (the Russians) said that they could not say where it came from, which surprised us somewhat," Utiashvili said.

A source in Russia's atomic energy agency told Interfax news agency that Russia had been given only a tiny amount of the uranium to analyse. They found it was enriched to more than 90 percent, the source said.