Senior British diplomats, including the High Commissioner to Sierra Leone Peter Penfold and the Foreign Office Minister Tony Lloyd, are likely to be questioned by customs and excise officials over allegations that they were secretly involved in the clandestine supply of arms and mercenaries to restore Ahmed Tejan Kabbah as president of the country after the ouster of military strongman Johny Paul Korma.

At the centre of the scandal is a decorated Bosnian war hero Lt Col Tim Spicer, also the executive director of Sandline International, to whom the British High Commissioner reportedly turned to arrange supply of guns and mercenaries to oust the dictator.

Spicer was helped by Nigerian forces in Sierra Leone when it was under the United Nations mandate. In return, the Britishcompany received diamond concessions worth millions.

The disclosure of the deal has the potential of blowing into another scandal like the arms deal with Iraq, which damaged the credibility of the John Major-led Tory government.

The events have already provoked a row between Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and trade secretary and president of the board for trade Margaret Beckett, whose ministry is responsible for abiding by the UN sanctions. Media reports said, ``Cook has been snared into arms for coup inquiry.'' The officials of Department of Trade were quoted by media as saying, ``Either Cook gave his blessing for the operation or he did not know what his African desk was doing.''

At least 200 people, many of them civilians were killed when local militiamen and Nigerian military forces drove out the military leader who had overthrown President Kabbah. Col Spicer's coup resemble the events followed in Fredrick Forsyth's famous novel Dogs of War when he -- in a ten million US dollar operation -- shippedBulgarian arms and ammunition to forces opposed to the coup, who seized power last year. Spicer and his company had helped to arm and train 40,000 fighters and with assistance from Nigerian Army toppled the military dictator in March last year.

Sunday Times reported that during military operations Spicer had held discussions with senior foreign office diplomats. The British High Commissioner, Penfold, now here for questioning by customs officials is said to have paid visits to Sandline London Offices to discuss tactics.

Reports said the British customs and excise officials acting on a tip-off from MI-6 executed search warrants at London headquarters of Sandline and also at Col Spicer's home last month and seized documents related to the ten million dollar contract and shipping for guns. Spicer could now face prosecution, the report added. Times quoted his lawyers as saying that the company had the permission of foreign office to supply arms to a legitimate government.