BERLIN Ñ Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist group attempted to obtain weapons grade nuclear material on several occasions, a U.S.-based arms control specialist said.

Friedrich Steinhaeusler, an arms control specialist with California's Stanford University told the German ARD television network that the Al Qaeda terrorist group tried to obtain several kilograms of highly enriched uranium with the aid of the Russian mafia but the attempt was thwarted in Prague.

The report also said that nuclear material was too readily available, Middle East Newsline reported.

On Monday, Georgian authorities seized 23 boxes containing an undisclosed quantity of highly radioactive plutonium valued at about $65,000. The plutonium was discovered in several apartments in Tbilisi concealed in metal boxes buried under a layer of instant coffee. "We know that there were very definite attempts by Al Qaeda to obtain nuclear material through middlemen and representatives of Russian organized crime and that these conversations are believed to have taken place in Europe and are also being investigated by European security services," Steinhaeusler said. The middlemen originated from Germany, Belarus, the Czech republic and Russia, according to the report.

The FBI said that Bin Laden's former finance chief Mamduh Mahmud Salim, who was arrested near Munich in 1998 and extradited to the United States, had tried to obtain nuclear weapons components.

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