The Times and the Daily Telegraph yesterday said the plans for the 2.2 billion pound ($ 3.6 billion) sell-off are part of a package of proposals to reorganise Britain's armed forces that were leaked to them on the eve of the government's announcement to parliament yesterday.

Leaders of the Opposition Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties condemned the leaks and demanded an investigation. Defense Secretary George Robertson, who called the leak ``grossly improper,'' said yesterday morning that the ``severest action'' would be taken against the person responsible.

Under plans designed to make the military more flexible and more mobile, the army, navy and air force would be more closely integrated and there would be cuts in the number of warships, combat aircraft and theterritorial army, which supplements the army in wartime. Large numbers of British troops stationed in Germany will also be brought home, the Times said.

Britain will retain its nuclear deterrent, but there will be fewer than 200 operationally available nuclear warheads, a cut of a third from the maximum of 300 announced by the previous government and a cut of more than 70 per cent in the potential explosive power of the nuclear deterrent since the end of the cold war, the Times quoted the proposal as saying.

The newspaper said the government will reduce to 48 from 96 the maximum number of warheads on its fleet of three Trident submarines, and the fleet will be increased to four at the start of the century. The Daily Telegraph said the premature disclosure will be a ``major embarrassment'' to the government.