Kiev- Ukraine's government on Friday claimed a controversial Ukrainian tank shipment hijacked by Somali pirates was destined for the Kenyan army, not wartorn South Sudan - making the fate of the freighter, its cargo, and its hapless 20-man crew even murkier than before.

A load of 33 refurbished T-72 tanks and thousands of tonnes of other military equipment aboard the MV Faina was all part of a legitimate state-to-state arms export, and in no way an illicit arms transfer, according to a statement made public by Ukraine's State Service of Export Control (USSEC).

Somali pirates in small boats grabbed the Belize-flagged cargo vessel on September 26. US Navy officials and Ukrainian media were quick to accuse Kiev of attempting to bypass a UN ban on the transfer of weapons to the troubled Southern Sudan and Darfur regions.

Ukraine's government on Friday said those charges were groundless, and tried to prove it by making public copies of a state-to-state contract. The contract seemed to show an order for Ukraine's national arms export monopoly Ukrspetsexport to ship the weaponry to a supply and ordnance division of the Kenyan Ministry of Defence.

Other items contained in the delivery include four rapid-fire anti-aircraft cannon, heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, an undetermined number of armored personnel carriers, and around
1,000 tons of ammunition, according the Stockholm International Peace Watch (SIPW), an international security NGO.

Ukrainian opposition media questioned the government's declaration, charging that a four-letter notation in the contract - "g. o. s. s" - in fact identified the intended receiver of the shipment as "The government of South Sudan", according to a Kievsky Telegraf newspaper article.

Subsequent USSEC statements published in Kiev disparaged the accusation, saying the initials referred to "General Ordnance and Security Supplies", a division of Kenya's Ministry of Defence, according to the official Ukrainian declaration.

Alfred Mutua, a Kenyan government spokesman, confirmed the Ukrainian government's claim that the weapons were meant for the Kenyan army. But senior Kenyan defence officials have said no "General Ordnance and Security Supplies" division exists within the Kenyan army, according to the SIPW report.

Ukraine has sold Kenya small arms before, but never tanks. Kenya's parliament reportedly will begin an investigation into Nairobi's involvement in the shipment in coming weeks.

Ukraine's embattled government, faced with early parliamentary elections and a constitutional crisis, has struggled to divert public attention from the mostly Ukrainian crew and cargo of the cargo ship Faina, both now in the hands of pirates for almost a month.

Ukrainian opposition parties, meanwhile, have accused Kiev of failing to protect Ukrainian citizens and participating in illegal arms transfers.

NATO has assembled a squadron of a reported six warships in the vicinity of the freighter, which is currently anchored off Somalia's Puntland coast. A Russian destroyer is also en route to the scene and expected to arrive by the end of the month.

Last week, EU defence ministers agreed to deploy three warships, one supply ship and three maritime surveillance aircraft in a similar operation.

The pirates have demanded a 20 million dollar ransom for the Ukrainian ship and its contents and vowed to murder the Faina's 20- member crew of 17 Ukrainians, two Russians and one Latvian if the foreign warships or anyone else attempts to free the hostages.

Negotiations between the pirates and shipping company representatives are in progress, and, according to Ukraine's Channel 5 television channel, moving forward.

A major problem in gaining the sailors' and their ship's release has been the difficulty in determining the actual owner of the tanks and other weapons aboard the Faina, according to the report.

Alleged current owners of the originally low-profile arms shipment from Ukraine now include the Ukrainian government, the Kenyan government, the Sudanese government, the semi-official Government of South Sudan, the semi-official coastal Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFGS) and Ethiopian army forces fighting on the side of the TFGS. (dpa)