China denies Libya weapons report

China is denying a report that it planned to sell arms to Muammar Qaddafi's government as international opinion shifted against the Libyan leader in favor of the rebels who removed him from power this summer.

A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Chinese state-owned companies had met with representatives of Qaddafi in July, without the permission or knowledge of the government. A weekend report from the Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail cited discarded Libyan government documents showing that Qaddafi's representatives made a $200 million weapons shopping trip to China in July. The documents show that Chinese state-owned companies were prepared to sell Qaddafi's government a cache of weapons, likely shipped through third-country channels.

China Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu said in a regular news briefing that no contracts were signed and no shipments made, and that China complies with a UN ban on weapons sales to the failed Qaddafi regime.