WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Georgia said yesterday it  had foiled the attempted sale of bomb-grade uranium on the  black market in March, the latest in what it said was a series  of such cases over the past 10 years.

Georgia disclosed the latest attempted illicit sale during  a 47-nation nuclear security summit in Washington that aims to  prevent terrorists and criminal gangs getting their hands on  material that could be used to make a nuclear bomb.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International  Atomic Energy Agency, has documented 18 cases of weapons-grade  nuclear material being stolen or going missing around the world  since the early 1990s.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia was one of  a number of former Soviet republics where smugglers of nuclear  materials operated. In recent years Russia and the United  States have been cooperating to put a halt to this activity.

The Georgian delegation attending the nuclear summit in  Washington said in a statement there was clear evidence of  criminal groups attempting to use Georgian territory for the  illegal trafficking of nuclear and radioactive materials.

“The Georgian Ministry of Interior has foiled eight  attempts of illicit trafficking (in) enriched uranium during  the last 10 years, including several cases of weapons-grade  enrichment,” the statement said.

The Georgian authorities had detained a number of suspects  in connection with the cases, it said.