Khartoum, March 10 (Reuters): A stenographer for the US Congress generated alarming headlines in the Sudanese press this week by giving the mistaken impression the US conducted nuclear tests in the African country in 1962 and 1970.

The Sudanese government asked the US for an explanation and began its own investigations into a website report that a subcommittee of the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee had talked about the tests in Sudan.

But foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, who had summoned the US charge d'affaires on hearing the news, said yesterday it turned out that the word Sudan was merely a typing error for Sedan, the name of a nuclear test site in Nevada. ?The American administration... said that there is a typing mistake,? he said. ?Instead of writing Sedan, the typist in the military subcommittee branch typed Sudan,? he said.

?Now they want to correct the spelling mistake and they want to confirm the tests did not take place in Sudan but in Sedan,? he added.

A US embassy official said a statement had been issued affirming no tests were made in Sudan.