China in South Africa nuclear deal

China has played down reports that its technicians have dismantled a nuclear plant in South Africa and shipped it back to China.

A spokesman in Beijing said some reports did not tally with the facts.

The reports emerged when South African immigration officials looking for illegal immigrants came across a group Chinese technicians by chance at a nuclear facility Pelindaba near Pretoria.

The officials were being accompanied by a television crew making a documentary.

South Africa has confirmed that it sold China equipment used to produce the special zirconium tubing that sheaths fuel in nuclear reactors.

But the Chinese spokesman said this was a normal commercial deal.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service