BEIJING - CHINA accused the Western media on Tuesday of distorting UN reports on its arms sales to Zimbabwe, but stopped short of clarifying the exact nature of such deals.

Mr Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, made the comment following a report published by a United Nations experts group on the Democratic Republic of Congo.

'Some western media distorted relevant information in the report of the Experts Group of the UN Security Council... and falsely accused China of transporting ammunition through the Democratic Republic of Congo to Zimbabwe,' Mr Qin said.

'It is nothing but fabrication with ulterior motives. If you read the report of the experts group carefully, you will find out that the accusation doesn't hold water.' 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 the weapons.

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

Last week AFP reported that UN experts had 'credible information' that Zimbabwe may have received Chinese arms last year via Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a recently published report.

The UN Security Council report cited four Boeing aircraft flights that took place between Kinshasa, Harare and Lubumbashi and 'transported a total of 53 tons of ammunition destined to the Zimbabwean army' between Aug 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,' the report said.

The experts group also 'received credible information that the weapons transported originated in China' and has written to the Chinese government.

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