Saturday, March 19 2005 11:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kiev: Ukraine has sold nuclear-capable cruise missiles to both China and Iran, the prosecutor-general's office said yesterday (Mar 18, 2005) but stressed that the deals were illegal and under criminal investigation.

"This is not about exports of missiles but rather illegal sales which are being investigated by the SBU (security service) which has opened a criminal investigation of the director of the company Ukraviazakas," the office said in a statement confirming a report by the London-based Financial Times.

Svyatoslav Piskun, Ukraine's prosecutor general, earlier told the daily that 18 Soviet-era X-55 cruise missiles were exported in 2001 - 12 to Iran and six to China.

Piskun was also quoted as saying that the missiles were not exported with the nuclear warheads that they were designed to carry. His office said a suspect in the case was currently standing a closed-door trial in Kiev.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Boris Tarasyuk said that the country's new leadership, which assumed power during late last year, was not responsible for the sales.

"We can only condemn the non-democratic actions that were carried out by the previous authorities," he said while on a visit to neighbouring Belarus. "The results of (our) investigation point to a criminal group that was involved in unlawful sales of arms," he said. Tarasyuk said that the group included citizens of several countries.

The X-55, an air-launched missile also known as the Kh-55 and AS-15 and first introduced in 1976, has a range of 3,500 kms (2,175 miles), which would give China - or North Korea, if it obtained the missile - easy access to Japan, while Iran could hit its main regional foe, Israel.