Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded prison terms for two former executives of a defunct Tokyo trading firm charged with illegally shipping parts for antitank rocket launchers to Iran.

At the final hearing at the Tokyo District Court, prosecutors sought two-year prison sentences and fines of 1.5 million yen for Ichiro Takahashi, 63, and Tsuneo Ishida, 67. Prosecutors said the defendants' actions were "self-centered and based on greed."

They said the offense contravened government regulations on exports of weapons, adding that Takahashi and Ishida both bear grave responsibility because the technology they exported was vital to the building of the launchers.

Takahashi and Ishida, both former directors of Sun Beam K.K., a two-man firm that went bankrupt in July 1998, pleaded guilty.

Their lawyers asked for suspended sentences. udge Satoru Hattori will hand down his ruling on April 12.

According to the indictment, the two men received orders in April and December 1995 from a state-run Iranian enterprise, Iran Electronics Industries, to export 3,100 dials used to construct sighting devices for antitank rocket launchers. The two were arrested in January. The two shipments, worth an estimated 3.5 million yen, were made without the permission of the international trade and industry minister, violating the government's restrictions on exports of weapons under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law, the indictment said.

Japan restricts military-related exports to Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea under a policy on arms exports adopted in 1967.

The arms policy requires the trade minister's permission for military-related exports to communist states, countries involved in international conflicts and nations under U.N. arms embargoes.

Police sent papers to prosecutors last week accusing a former Iranian ambassador to Japan and a former member of staff of the Iranian Embassy here of being directly involved in the weapons exports.

Prosecutors, however, are not expected to file charges against the former ambassador, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, because he holds diplomatic immunity against arrest or indictment.

Ardebili returned to Iran after serving as ambassador to Japan between March 1990 and December 1994. He currently serves as adviser to Iran's Oil Ministry and represents Iran at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.