The United States has claimed that Syria had been secretly building a nuclear reactor with North Korean help. The U.S. backed its accusations with a video provided by the CIA which reportedly shows the facility which Damascus was using to develop the nuclear reactor.

The facility had been built for military, not peaceful purposes, but it was bombed by the Israeli Army during a September raid. Approximately a month later, Syria carried out a controlled demolition explosion to wipe out any remaining evidence of the project.

Damascus said it had built the plant to produce electricity and carry out experiments. But the CIA evidence shows that the plant was in fact built with the intention of producing plutonium, which can be converted to weapons-grade fuel.

The 11-minute recording, which is in fact a collection of still photos, depicts scenes from the construction of the gas-cooled graphite-moderated reactor built by Damascus in the remote desert region al-Kibar (eastern Syria). The recording also shows a North Korean official from the Asian country’s nuclear program meeting with Syria's head of the nuclear energy program.

Damascus rejected the U.S. accusations and Syria’s ambassador to Washington labeled them as "a ridiculous story".

"The Syrian regime must come clean before the world. The construction of this reactor was a dangerous and potentially destabilizing development for the region and the world," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

The White House said Syria broke the international agreements by hiding its nuclear project from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“We are convinced, based on a variety of information, that North Korea assisted Syria's covert nuclear activities,” Perino added.

This is the first time the Bush administration makes public its suspicions about the al-Kibar site.

In a two-page statement released after the Congress had been briefed, Perino said the U.S. will collaborate with China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas in order to develop "a rigorous verification mechanism to ensure that such conduct and other nuclear activities have ceased."