Two Czechs were arrested by a special police unit for violating laws on trade in weapons, Kosinova said.

"They were sending weapons on order to Africa, the Middle East, Iraq, Iran and Israel and now face up to 10 years in prison," she said.

She said police had seized 157 long-range weapons, 20 pistols, nine machine-guns and six revolvers in raids.

She refused to comment on a report in the Prague newspaper Dnes on Monday that the alleged ringleader in the arms trade, a 43-year-old Czech, had been manufacturing ammunition at his firm in Pavlice in the southeast of the Czech Republic and was preparing to export ammunition to Iraq, using an American firm.

The ammunition was apparently destined for Iraq government units but Czech intelligence was afraid it could fall into the hands of anti-government forces, Dnes said.

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