"I know of a number of medical people who do take in small quantities of bacteriological substances for research regularly through customs and never declare them, it's quite common practice," Patricia Lewis, head of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) told AFP.

That would imply that it would be relatively easy to transport an agent used for a small-scale biological weapon around the world, she said.

Lewis also noted that many university laboratories did not have locks on doors or refrigerators containing biological cultures, and material was regularly exchanged between different research laboratories or colleagues, even internationally, without much thought.

"Within the scientific community there is this culture of transparency and openness that would have to change if you wanted to stop that small source (bacteriological material) disappearing," Lewis said.

Lewis said there was no evidence that anthrax cultures used in the letters containing the disease in the US came from universities, but pointed out that it was possible to bring small amounts of biological material that caused infectious disease into the country quite easily.

She also raised the possibility that an infectious Ebola-type haemorrhagic disease could be spread by a small group of people who deliberately infected themselves, although there was no evidence that this had happened.

"Once a contagious disease is involved you would get much more panic," Lewis said.

"It's the suicide bomber with a new twist."

Anthrax has become a focus of bioterrorism fears since September 11, especially in the US where several people were found to have been exposed to the disease. One of them died. Lewis pointed out that the quantities of anthrax involved in the US were small.

"You can make anthrax or other types of infectious agents in small quantities but to make it in large quantities is not so trivial," Lewis added.

She admitted it would be difficult to set a "standard by which you have to catch every phial, every test tube of bacteriological agents that could be useful in a weapons or to cause deliberate disease," which is transported around the world.

"But there are some things that could be done in universities," she added.

Lewis said it might also mean keeping track of students.

There is also a clear need to boost knowledge about existing legal restrictions and non-proliferation treaties amongst scientists, according to Lewis.

Lewis pointed out that in interviews with the UN's weapons inspectors in Iraq, many scientists didn't realise that some constraints existed under the Biological Weapons Convention.

"If you begin a process of awareness in the scientific community over legal restrictions then they might understand better the need for concern over looking after small amounts of the biological material," she said.

Lewis said letters and parcels had been considered by arms control experts as a means for terror groups to deliver biological weapons, or even cement mixers to conceal small nuclear weapons.

"All of these things have been considered, but people have taken very little notice of the possibilities, until recently you were dismissed as a scaremonger," she said.

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