Two former Chilean army officers have been charged with accepting bribes for the purchase of Dutch armoured vehicles in 1998. Each of the men is accused of pocketing a 600,000 dollar bribe over the sale of 200 Leopard tanks.

It is not clear whether the men, Luis Iracabal Lobos and Gustavo Latorre Vasquez, were offered the money or whether they siphoned it off. A court in Santiago judged on Monday that there is enough evidence to prosecute the two.

The tanks were sold by the Netherlands' defense supplier RDM to Chile for 63 million dollars. All of the vehicles were scheduled for replacement in 2006, because they "had already been in a deplorable state when they arrived", according to press reports in Chile.

The head of RDM at the time, Joep van den Nieuwenhuyzen, told reporters that he is not aware of any payments being made to army officers. Former Defence Minister Joris Voorhoeve says he can only recall issuing an export licence for the tanks. Mr Voorhoeve says the allegation of bribing is "very serious" and he is calling for the Netherlands to start its own investigation.

The two ex-officers' alleged corruption came to light in the course of an investigation into the overseas accounts of Chile's late dictator, Augusto Pinochet. When he died in 2006, the accounts held 28 million dollars.