Oslo - Sales of military trucks to Myanmar was Friday cited as the reason Norway's state pension fund removed Chinese company, Dongfeng Motor Group Co Ltd, from its list of assets.

"We cannot finance companies that support the military dictatorship in Burma through the sale of military materials," Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said in a statement.

A special ethics panel had advised the government to sell its stake in Dongfeng Motor Group, citing that a subsidiary company sold 900 trucks to Myanmar during the first half of 2008.

The panel said the trucks were adapted for military use, and noted that both the United States and the European Union have arms embargoes against Myanmar. Norway is not a member of the EU.

The divested holdings were worth 30 million kroner (4.5 million dollars).

Halvorsen said it was "the first time the new exclusion criteria regarding the sale of weapons and military materials to Burma has been applied" since they were adopted in October 2008.

The government pension fund Global is managed by the central bank and uses income from Norway's petroleum wealth. It was created to pay for Norway's future health and pension expenditures through investments outside the Norwegian economy.

The fund owns shares in some 7,700 companies worldwide.

In a related move, the Finance Ministry said German company Siemens AG has been placed under observation over corruption allegations in recent years. Corruption is another factor the fund uses to exclude an investment.

"By placing the company under observation we will contribute to keeping up the momentum on the anti-corruption efforts," Halvorsen said. (dpa)