Vienna » Secret documents and hundreds of photos smuggled out of Myanmar by an army defector indicate its military regime is trying to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, a former senior U.N. nuclear inspector said Friday.

Robert Kelley said the evidence he has seen and heard from the defector is the most compelling yet to support suspicions that Myanmar is interested in atomic arms.

Kelley retired from the Vienna-based IAEA in 2008 after holding senior positions. He was commenting on a report he co-authored that was released Friday by the Democratic Voice of Burma, an expatriate media group in Norway.

The report said the defector, Sai Thein Win, had been involved in the nuclear program and smuggled out extensive files and photographs describing experiments with uranium and specialized equipment needed to build a nuclear reactor and develop enrichment capabilities.

But the report concluded that Myanmar is still far from producing a nuclear weapon.

"From what I've seen, the quality of workmanship is extremely poor, that the level of professionalism in the things they are building, the drawings they are making is extremely poor," said Kelley.

"I am not saying that this is a nuclear weapons program that is about to scare us tomorrow," he said. "What I am saying is the intent to build nuclear weapons is much more clear now."

The IAEA, which works on preventing nuclear proliferation, had no comment.

Kelley said the information he analyzed had to his knowledge not yet been shared either with the IAEA nor any government.

He described the defector as an army major trained in Myanmar as a defense engineer and later in Russia as a missile expert. He said he had access to secret Myanmar nuclear facilities.

Experts already have built -- and possibly used -- equipment to make uranium metal, the material used for fissile warheads, he said.

"The total picture is very compelling. Burma is trying to build pieces of a nuclear program, specifically a nuclear reactor to make plutonium and a uranium enrichment program," the report said.