"It's possible, but we have no clues," Jason Stearns, a member of a panel of UN experts that produced a report on weapons transfers to and from war-torn Congo, told AFP.

He said media stories quoting the UN report issued last week as saying there was "credible information" that Zimbabwe may have received Chinese arms via Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo were incorrect.

The report addressed to the UN Security Council said the experts were aware of "large amounts of ammunition arriving in eastern Congo without any notification by exporters to the (UN) sanctions committee," and that the Congolese army "may also be exporting weapons and ammunition to other countries in the region."

"As the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) does not produce weapons or ammunition, this stock would have been imported to the DRC without notification and then possibly exported in violation of the original end-user agreement with the original exporter," said the report, dated December 12.

And it pointed to four Boeing aircraft flights that took place between Kinshasa, Harare and Lubumbashi that "transported a total of 53 tons of ammunition destined to the Zimbabwean army" between August 20 and 22 this year.

"While this is not a violation of the arms embargo, it is an indication that the Democratic Republic of the Congo could become a transit point for weapons destined for other countries." it noted.

Separately, the report said UN experts "obtained information regarding military supplies flown to the FARDC (Congolese army) from Khartoum without notification to the sanctions committee."

The experts pointed to five flights ferrying weapons for the Congolese army between Khartoum and the eastern Congolese city of Kisangani last September.

The UN report said the experts "received credible information that the weapons transported originated in China," and that they had written to Beijing and were awaiting a reply.

But Stearns said there was no link between the cargo flights from Congo to Zimbabwe and those between Sudan and Congo.

"We have no evidence that they were linked," he told AFP.

Also Tuesday, China accused some Western media of distorting "relevant information" in the report by the panel of UN experts on arms sales to Zimbabwe.

"Some Western media ... falsely accused China of transporting ammunition through the Democratic Republic of Congo to Zimbabwe," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

China has maintained that it abides by UN resolutions on arm sales, sells arms only to sovereign governments and demands end-user agreements from its buyers banning the transfer of weapons.

In March, the Security Council extended an arms embargo until December 31 targeting the many armed militias operating in eastern Congo, but not the government's armed forces, the FARDC.

On Monday the embargo was extended until November 30, 2009.

According to Resolution 1807, the FARDC can receive military equipment as long as the exporting country informs the council's sanctions committee ahead of time.

Fighting since August 28 between Rwandan-backed Congolese rebels and the Kinshasa government has displaced more than 250,000 people in Congo's eastern Nord-Kivu province.

Related Links
Africa News - Resources, Health, Food

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News