Khan, deemed a hero for his work on building Pakistan's nuclear bomb, read out a confessional statement on state-run television soon after a meeting with President Pervez Musharraf.

The public confession seals a dramatic fall from grace for the scientist, who was sacked as a government advisor last week after a two-month investigation into the leaking of nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

"There was never ever any kind of authorisation for these activities by the government, I take full responsibility for my actions and seek your pardon," said Khan, 66.

"I have much to answer for. The investigations have established that many of the reported activities did occur and these were inevitably initiated at my behest."

"I have chosen to appear before you to offer my deepest regrets and unqualified apologies to a traumatised nation," he said.

Khan earlier admitted his guilt and pleaded for clemency during the meeting with Musharraf.

The National Command Authority (NCA), which controls the nuclear and missile programme, met late Wednesday and discussed the day's developments, a senior government official said.

"The NCA meeting co-chaired by President Musharraf and Prime Minister (Zafraullah) Jamali decided to refer the clemency petition of Dr A.Q. Khan to the cabinet for discussion and consideration," a government spokesman told AFP.

Jamali's cabinet will discuss the mercy petition Thursday and advise General Musharraf on whether to pardon Khan, the spokesman said.

The White House Wednesday welcomed Pakistan's effort to crackdown on people engaged in nuclear proliferation.

It was up to Pakistan to decide whether to prosecute the architect of its nuclear program for his unauthorised transfer of atomic secrets to other countries, spokesman Scott McClellan said in Washington.

More than a dozen nuclear scientists, engineers and administrators have been questioned after information from Iran was forwarded to Pakistan via the International Atomic Energy Agency in November.

Five scientists and officials of the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), the uranium enrichment facility which Khan headed for 25 years, are still under detention.

The government has strongly denied any officials in past or present administrations were engaged in the leaks, raising eyebrows among some analysts.

Opposition parties are also furious at the investigation, calling it politically motivated and blaming the West for pressurising a nuclear-capable Islamic country.

Khan headed KRL until he was retired by Musharraf in March 2001 but given the post of a special advisor, from which he was sacked Saturday.

He is credited with procuring a blueprint for uranium centrifuges, which transform uranium into weapons-grade fuel for nuclear fissile material.

Khan was charged with stealing it from The Netherlands while working for Anglo-Dutch-German nuclear engineering consortium Urenco, and bringing it back to Pakistan in 1976.

On his return, he joined the uranium enrichment plant and the project is credited with ultimately leading to Pakistan's first nuclear test in May 1998.

In 1983 he was sentenced in absentia to four years imprisonment by an Amsterdam court for attempted espionage, but the sentence was later overturned on appeal.

WAR.WIRE