The weapons were discovered late Wednesday when customs officials grew suspicious and, with help from paramilitary troops, opened two of an unspecified number of containers unloaded at the Ambarli customs area in Istanbul.

"So far we have found a radio-controlled missile, along with its launchers, and missile heads. We are continuing the investigation," Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen told reporters here.

Tuzmen, who holds the foreign trade portfolio, refused to elaborate on what was exactly in the containers, but said they included "weapons which can be described as sophisticated".

He explained that the captain of the ship which brought in the containers had declared their content as spare parts.

"The captain's declarations and what is in the containers are different. Furthermore, Turkey was not informed of the passage of these weapons in line with international agreements," said Tuzmen, who holds the foreign trade portfolio.

"Using the most subtle description, this is trafficking. Naturally, when the trafficking of war weapons is concerned, the scale of the incident becomes bigger," he added.

The minister said the serial numbers of the containers had also been tampered with, but added officials were also trying to establish whether the declared origin and destination of the goods were correct.

"The containers, as transit cargo, were brought to Istanbul by one ship, unloaded at Ambarli and were waiting to be picked up by another ship to be taken to Egypt," Tuzmen explained.

"This is the general picture, but we are looking into it," he said.

According to press reports, a Portuguese-registered ship had dropped the containers in Istanbul.

Last month, Turkish police seized a cargo of about 500 Kalashnikov assault rifles from a Bulgarian-registered ship when it docked at Ambarli on its way to Paraguay.

The weapons had been described in the ship's manifest as hunting rifles.

WAR.WIRE