Washington (PTI): Rogue nations and groups may have gained access to an advanced nuclear weapon design through an international smuggling ring, linked to disgraced Pakistani scientist A Q Khan, a former UN arms inspector said.

A copy of the inspector's draft report said the drawings of the blueprints included essential details for building a compact nuclear device and could be fitted on a type of ballistic missile used by Iran and more than a dozen developing countries, the Washington Post said.

The soon-to-be published report suggested the designs could have been sold to "rogue" nations and groups.

Drawings for the device was discovered in 2006 on computers owned by Swiss businessmen. The contents among more than 1,000 gigabytes of data were recently destroyed by Swiss authorities under the supervision of the UN's nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the newspaper said.

IAEA is investigating the now-defunct smuggling ring previously led by Khan for its involvement in the new discovery. The smuggling ring had supplied bomb-related parts to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

UN officials could not rule out the possibility of the new blueprints being shared with others before their discovery, said the author of the report, David Albright, who had spent four years researching the international smuggling network.

"These advanced nuclear weapons designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world," Albright said in the draft report about the blueprint's discovery.