An investigation by the International Crisis Group thinktank into the arms-for-Iraq scam concludes that Jugoimport, the Belgrade-based Yugoslav state arms export agency accused by the US last month, also brokered arms to Iraq from Bosnia, Ukraine, Russia, and "possibly Macedonia and Belarus".

Despite claims by senior Yugoslav officials, including President Vojislav Kostunica, that they knew nothing of the trade, documents seen by the Guardian show that the Kostunica administration was warned in January by its foreign ministry of the damage being done by its trading with Iraq. The Kostunica cabinet then voted to continue with the clandestine deals.

"According to diplomatic sources, the pace of arms sales to Iraq may have increased during 2002," concludes the ICG report.

A senior western official told the Guardian: "Just about every defence company in [Yugoslavia] sold to Iraq via Syria or via a third country."

Bulgaria admitted last week that the Terem plant in Turgovishte had been sending armoured vehicles and spare parts to Iraq via Syria, while Belarus, under the anti-western authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, has been supplying Baghdad with missile expertise and machinery which can be adapted for military use.

Last month, acting on a tip-off from US intelligence, the Croatian authorities seized 14 steel containers from the freighter Boka Star. Inside the barrels and crates labelled "active carbon" and "filter inserts for water purification" were some 208 tonnes of nitrocellulose propellant and nitroglycerine, compounds that could be used for Iraq's dwindling arsenal of Scud missiles