The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear programme a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret US operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to US and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach

insurgents or smugglerscrossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

What's now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad using teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.

"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior US official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivityof the subject.

While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-

called "dirty bomb" a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material it could stir widespread panic it incorporated in a blast. Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and. at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.

The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer. Cameco Corp., in a transaction the official described as worth "tens of millions of dollars." A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, declined to discuss the price, but said the yellowcake will be processed at facilities in Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.