US SANCTIONS ON NINE COMPANIES

GE and Halliburton who do work in Iran, not on the List.

The US has imposed sanctions against nine companies from China, India and Austria for supplying Iran with military equipment and technology.

The sanctions, which ban the companies from doing business with the US government and US companies, were based on the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000, which aims at preventing Teheran from developing nuclear weapons.

The US has accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear arms under the cover of its civilian nuclear energy program.

"These entities will be sanctioned based on credible information that they transferred equipments and technologies referred on the multilateral control lists to Iran," US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said. "They are serial offenders."

The Chinese companies hit were the public company China National
Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation, missile builder China North Industries Corp (Norinco), the chemical equipment group Zibo Chemet Equipment Corp, Hongdu Aviation, Ounion International Economic and Technical Cooperative Ltd, and Limmt Metallurgy and Minerals.

Two Indian chemical groups were also cited: Sabero Organics and Sandhya Organics.

Also cited was Austrian firearms maker Steyr-Mannlicher.

---MORE---