The Russia Defense Ministry has strongly denied a German report that the Western Group of Forces sold heavy weapons to the Bosnian Serbs, breaking the UN arms embargo on Bosnia.


The charges in Monday's edition of the German weekly Der Spiegel list a detailed catalog of alleged arms sales, including tanks and howitzers sold to the Serbs by the Western Army, which is at the center of a huge web of corruption allegations.


The magazine, basing its claims on research by the Frankfurt Institute of Soviet Studies, said the army had sold the Serbs anti-tank weapons and grenade launchers substantially boosting their firepower in their war for control of Bosnia.


In May, it said, 92 T-72 tanks were smuggled into the former Yugoslavia through Ukraine. Then in September it said, quoting "U.S. data," that 83 122-millimeter S-300B howitzers with a range of 15 kilometers had reached the Serbs.


The allegations were consistent with separate research by Paul Beaver, a Balkans expert with the military magazine Jane's Defence Weekly.


Beaver said he had "very strong indications" from a number of "impeccable sources" that the Western Group had been peddling arms which had gone to the Serbs. He said his own report would be published at the end of next week.


He said the manner of the group's withdrawal from Germany gave them a chance to trade in heavy weapons.


"One of the rules of the Soviet withdrawal from Eastern Europe was that trains were invalid for customs," Beaver said. "They were sealed at point of departure and unsealed when they arrived in Ukraine, Belarus or wherever. These trains were being shifted all over the place and it's perfectly feasible they could have been shifting heavy weapons."


Beaver said that a large number of T-72 tanks, as alleged in the Spiegel article, had appeared in the battlefields of Bosnia but no one had yet confirmed where they came from. However, the Serbs were already equipped with the Yugoslav version of the T-72, the M-83 tank, which is strikingly similar in appearance to its Russian counterpart.


There have been many reports of Russian mercenaries going to fight on the side of the Serbs, Moscow's traditional orthodox allies in the Balkans, but these are the first detailed accusations of illegal weapons supplies.


Major General Vladimir Kosarev, head of the information center at the Defense Ministry, roundly rejected the charges to Itar-Tass on Sunday.


"Not a single tank, not a single missile, nor any other piece of armament either operational or as scrap metal has been or is being supplied by Russian military arsenals to Serbian armed formations," Kosarev said.


He said weapons could have been passed on to the warring sides in the former Yugoslavia through the Soviet-supplied East German Army, but that "the Russian armed forces have no relation to this."


Alexander Zhilin, a journalist with Moskovskiye Novosti, who has been investigating corruption in the Western Group of Forces, said he had no documentation about sales to the Serbs but the manner of the official denial made him suspicious. "It always provokes doubt in me when in response to serious accusations they either just reject them or keep silent," Zhilin said. "They don't give any information."


Robert Bykov, a retired colonel who helped murdered journalist Dmitry Kholodov research the Western Group, said it would be virtually impossible to pin down any proof of arms sales to the Serbs.


"They are smart people," Bykov said. "You won't find any traces."