China Sought to Sell Arms to Qaddafi, Documents Suggest.

TRIPOLI, Libya -- In the final weeks of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's battle with Libyan rebels, Chinese state companies offered to sell his government large stockpiles of weapons and ammunition in apparent violation of United Nations sanctions, officials of Libya's transitional government said Sunday. They cited Qaddafi government documents found by a Canadian journalist, which the officials said were authentic. The documents, including a memo from Libyan security officials detailing a shopping trip to Beijing on July 16, appear to show that state-controlled Chinese arms companies offered to sell $200 million worth of rocket launchers, antitank missiles, portable surface-to-air missiles designed to bring down aircraft, and other weapons and munitions. The documents, in Arabic, were posted on Sunday on the Web site of The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]