Mar 16, 2009 (DVB), A state-owned Norwegian fund has pulled shares from a company that sells trucks to the Burmese government after it emerged they were being used for military purposes, the Norwegian Finance Minister said on Friday.

The Government Pension Fund-Global, the company that invests Norway's vast oil and gas wealth in foreign stocks, removed Chinese company Dongfeng Motor Group from its list of assets after receiving advice from a Norwegian special ethics panel.

Global reportedly owns shares in some 7,700 companies worldwide.

"We cannot finance companies that support the military dictatorship in Burma through the sale of military materials," Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said in a statement.

Global's divested holdings in Dongfeng Motor Group, who sold an estimated 900 trucks to Burma in the first half of 2008, were worth $US4.5 million.

Both the United States and the European Union have maintained arms embargoes against the Burmese government.

Reporting by Francis Wade