Finance ministry says weapons to Libya passed through Malta, not exported

In a rare statement it issued after receiving a 'complaint' by somebody alerted to the news, the ministry said Malta was only the transit country for the weapons, which had originated in Italy.

"The end user was the Government of Libya as confirmed by the Italian Embassy there," spokesperson Keith Zahra said.

There were no sanctions imposed on Libya at the time of the small arms exports, and that transit was authorised by Maltese customs. "Malta does not have any local establishment that caters for the manufacturing of arms. The manufacturer of the items had been duly licensed by the Italian Authorities."

Libya has received hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of arms from the European Union, with Italy and Malta emerging as the bloc's top exporters, according to an EU report from Brussels.

The report, which was first published by the EU in January but had gone largely unnoticed, came to the fore as Moamer Gaddafi's regime was attracting worldwide condemnation for quashing anti-government protests by killing hundreds of civilians.

According to the EU's latest annual report on arms exports, which refers to 2009, the bloc's member states granted €343 million worth of export licences to Libya.

The document noted that actual arms exports to Libya amounted to €174 million, but warned that figures were incomplete. Italy - which on Tuesday denied accusations by Gaddafi that it was arming the revolt - was shown to have granted export licences totalling 112 million euros, with a single €108 million licence for military aircraft making up most of the amount.

Germany was third in the list, with 53 million euros of licences, mostly for electronic jamming equipment used to disrupt mobile phone, internet and GPS communication.

France was next with 30.5 million euros, followed by Britain with 25.5 million euros, and Belgium with 22 million euros.