MOSCOW — Iran was said to have purchased intermediate-range cruise missiles that could fitted with a nuclear warhead, according to an investigation in Ukraine..

A leading Ukraine parliamentarian and politicians said a police investigation has determined that Iran bought missiles with a range of up to 3,000 kilometers from Kiev. The pro-government parliamentarian, Grigory Omelchenko, identified the cruise missiles as the Kh-55.

Omelchenko said Iran procured six Kh-55 air-to-ground cruise missiles from Ukraine between 1999 until 2001, Middle East Newsline reported. He said another six Kh-55s were sold to China.

The Kh-55 — termed by NATO the AS-15 — was said to be highly accurate and could contain a nuclear warhead. Omelchenko, a former officer of Ukraine's intelligence service, said authorities also prevented an attempt to export 14 Kh-55 missiles.

The missile sale to Iran came under the former regime of President Leonid Kuchma. Omelchenko, a supporter of the new pro-refrom government in Kiev, said Kuchma concealed the Kh-55 sale to China and Iran.

The United States has accused Ukraine of selling missile-related components to Iran. In September 2004, the State Department imposed sanctions on a private Ukrainian company for violating a proliferation ban on Iran, but did not provide details.

Analysts said the investigation of the Kh-55 missile sale began in 2004. They said Kiev has never acknowledged that Iran obtained the missile.

"I doubt it very much, very much indeed," Oleksandr Sushko, director of the Kiev-based Center for Peace, Conversion, and Foreign Policy, said. 'It is not the kind of weapon that could be sold secretly without somebody knowing about it."

The reported Kh-55 sale to Iran comes as Russia has increased defense cooperation with Teheran. The Moscow-based Kommersant daily reported that Russia plans to launch into orbit two Iranian reconnaissance satellites in 2005.

The Russian business daily reported on Feb. 2 that Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov signed an order on Jan. 24 for the Russian Defense Ministry to launch the two Iranian satellites from the Plesetsk launch site. The Iranian satellites were identified as Mesbah and Sinah-1, and Kommersant said the two facilities would be launched in a low geo-stationary orbit between April and June 2005.