It's emerged that a British firm at the centre of a dispute over supplying arms to help restore the civilian government of Sierra Leone, may be paid less for the deal than it had hoped.

Sierra Leone's Information Minister, Julius Spencer, told the BBC that most of the weapons supplied by the company, Sandline International, had arrived late -- after the illegal military government was ousted in February.

Consequently, Sandline was likely to receive less than two-million dollars, rather than the ten-million dollars specified in the original contract.

The BBC's West Africa correspondent says this will come as a new blow to Sandline, which is already at the centre of an investigation by British customs officials, into whether the arms shipment breached a United Nations embargo.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
 

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