Ministers misled MPs over arms to India and Iran

The Government admitted misleading Parliament yesterday over approval for the export of weapons components to India and Iran.

Jack Straw conceded that Britain had approved the sale to India of parts and production equipment for Hawk jet trainers. Previous ministerial statements claiming that no application had been received for a licence to export the Hawk to India had given a "misleading impression", the Foreign Secretary admitted.

At the same time, the BBC revealed that the Department of Trade and Industry had approved the export to Iran of components needed to make nuclear weapons.

Despite Britain's 19-year arms embargo on Iran, BBC Radio 4's File on Four will disclose today that the DTI allowed a quantity of beryllium, a metal crucial to nuclear bomb manufacture, to be sold to the country last year.

The Tories said both revelations called into question the Government's arms export policies and the candour of ministers when informing MPs of weapons sales.

In letters sent to Michael Ancram, the shadow Foreign Secretary, and Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Straw blamed an "oversight" by Foreign Office officials for the Hawk jets fiasco.

The disclosure that Delhi was seeking to buy the Hawk sparked controversy earlier this year amid heightened fears of a war between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Although the Hawk is primarily a training aircraft, it can also be used in a ground attack role. The application by BAE Systems to export the Hawk components and production equipment was recommended for approval by Foreign Office ministers shortly before the general election last year.

The Foreign Office declined to say which ministers were involved. At the time Robin Cook was Foreign Secretary, while John Battle was the minister with responsibility for India.

The application was approved in September last year by ministers at the Department of Trade and Industry, which is ultimately responsible for export licensing. But the Defence minister Lewis Moonie told Parliament in April that "no application for an export licence had been received".

Mr Straw said in his letter: "This new information is obviously important, and I am sorry that an oversight by officials meant that our public position has given a misleading impression. This was wholly unintentional both by me and by officials."

Gerald Howarth, the shadow Secretary of State for Defence, demanded a Commons statement, saying: "Given the sensitivity of this order it is simply inconceivable that ministers did not know that the Government had received and approved an export licence application. If they did not know, it amounts to unbelievable incompetence."

The Tories and the Liberal Democrats were also alarmed by the reports about beryllium being exported to Iran. Britain has had an arms embargo to Iran since 1983 and has signed up to an international protocol that bans the sale of beryllium to named countries, including Iran.

A Department of Trade and Industry spokesman refused to deny the report, but stressed that no licence would be granted if there were "an unacceptable risk of use in connection with weapons of mass destruction".

* Iran has accepted the nomination of a new, as yet unnamed, British ambassador to Tehran, the Foreign Office said yesterday. Iran rejected a previous candidate earlier this year over reports that he was Jewish and linked to MI6.