China denies supplying arms to Kadhafi regime

BEIJING: Beijing denied Monday that it provided the Kadhafi regime with weapons in its final days, but said Libyan officials had visited China in July for talks with "interested companies."

The ministry was responding to a report in a Canadian newspaper that Beijing offered huge stockpiles of weapons to Libya's then leader Moamer Kadhafi and held secret talks on shipping them through Algeria and South Africa.

"In July the Kadhafi government sent someone to China without the knowledge of the Chinese government to make contact with the representatives of interested companies," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told journalists. "Chinese companies have not provided military products to Libya in any direct or indirect form. Chinese companies did not sign arm sales contracts and they did not export military products to Libya."

China "does not allow any actions that contravene UN resolutions," she added.