A Bradford scientist today warned world leaders they have "one last chance" to stop terrorists acquiring biological weapons of mass destruc-tion.

Professor Malcolm Dando, pictured, from the University of Bradford, will call for governments to back stricter controls on official programmes of weapon development at an interna-tional conference next month.

And he said the anthrax attacks in the United States must serve as a "wake-up call" to international leaders before it is too late. His warning comes after he co-authored an article on the dangers of chemical warfare technology which draws on advances in genetic engineering.

Prof Dando said civil scientists in Australia had demonstrated the dangers of new techniques when they developed a lethal form of the Mousepox bacteria. "Someone could easily do the same sort of thing with smallpox," said Prof Dando. "All sorts of possibilities like that arise as capabilities spread around the world."

He said that terrorists were only likely to learn about such advances by copying techniques practised by scientists working for governments.

Prof Dando will be part of a Bradford University delegation which will give expert advice at the Geneva conference on the Biological Weapons Convention.

He said it was now vital that stringent limits, such as those which restrict the development of nuclear weapons, were imposed.

"If we could get the convention up to the level of the nuclear treaty then that would be a great deterrent," he said. "If you let the development of these weapons continue, there are all kinds of terrible things that could happen.

"Since America abandoned its pro-gramme of biological weapons de-velopment in the 1960s, the issue has been off the international agenda."