A forthcoming book by a former FBI consultant has revealed that Al-Qaeda is paying nuclear scientists from Russia and Pakistan to assemble additional weapons and to maintain its existing nuclear arsenal.

According to the author Paul Williams, some documents purportedly seized in Afghanistan underline the fact that Al Qaeda plans to assemble its own nuclear weapons with fissile material it purchased on the black market over a period of ten years.

The book also says that there was evidence to suggest that Al-Qaeda was paying former Russian Special Forces Spetznaz to assist them in locating nuclear weapons formerly concealed inside the US by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Bin Laden, in a November 2001 interview with a Pakistani journalist, boasted of having hidden such components "as a deterrent." And in 1998, a Russian nuclear weapons design expert was investigated for allegedly working with bin Laden's Taliban allies.

According to Williams, there is virtually no doubt among intelligence analysts that Al-Qaeda has obtained fully assembled nuclear weapons, Williams said. The only question is how many.