The US and Britain voiced concern in public in Ukraine yesterday that Kiev had sold Baghdad a radar detection system through a third party.
Ambassadors to Ukraine from the two countries said they were especially worried about Kiev's military sales to China.
China said it had no information about the systems and it had enforced UN sanctions against Iraq strictly.
In a joint news conference in the Ukrainian capital, the US and British envoys said lingering suspicions that the "Kolchuga" radar detection system found its way into Iraqi hands were bedeviling relations between their countries and Kiev.
"We can say that we cannot rule out the possibility that a transfer took place through a third party and that is a concern," US Ambassador Carlos Pascual said.
The ambassadors said UN weapons inspectors about to resume their mission to search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, would also keep an eye out for Kolchugas used on the ground.
If the system, which detects radar without itself emitting any signal, is in operation in Iraq, it would complicate any US-led military action against Baghdad and threaten US and British pilots patrolling "no-fly zones" in Iraq, set up after the 1991 Gulf War. Experts sent to Ukraine by Washington and London said they had found no evidence backing Ukraine's denials it had sold the system to Iraq.
"One of the things the United States would like to do is set a clear example that military transfers to Iraq will not be tolerated and that this will have a cost," Pascual said.
He said sales to China had raised "special concern" because of discrepancies between Ukraine's explanations and documentation.
As reported by the experts, Ukraine said the "end-user clause" in the contract -- which would prohibit the buyer from transferring the Kolchuga systems to third countries without Ukraine's approval -- was modified at China's request.
But Pascual said when Ukraine showed experts a copy of the clause, there was no modification and officials could not explain why the stories did not fit.
Earlier, China's Foreign Ministry said it had no information on the systems, adding it had enforced UN sanctions against Iraq strictly and that Sino-Ukrainian dealings were in line with international practice.
"Therefore, basically there does not exist any issue of China reselling radar systems to Iraq," spokesman Kong Quan told a news conference in Beijing.
Meanwhile, UN experts prepared yesterday to begin the first checks on suspect arms sites in nearly four years, amid warnings from the chief weapons inspector that Baghdad will have to offer strong proof to back its claim that it has no nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
The first 11 inspectors from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and six from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) went straight into working meetings at their Baghdad headquarters, UN sources said.
The experts, who arrived in Iraq from Cyprus on Monday, were to meet later in the day with Iraqi counterparts from the National Monitoring Directorate, ahead of their first site visit planned for today.
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