DETROIT (AP):The United States Army is assuring people that General Motors' deal to sell its Hummer brand to a Chinese company has nothing to do with the military version of the rugged vehicle.

Officials said some people called the Pentagon, Capitol Hill and AM General LLC, the company that makes the military vehicles, asking if the rights to the Humvee had been sold to the Chinese.

Steve Clawson, spokesman for the South Bend, Indiana-based AM General, said the military and civilian programmes are separate.

"GM's proposed sale of the civilian Hummer brand would have no impact on the military Humvee programme," he said.

clarified

The Army's news service posted a story to clarify the situation on its website Wednesday, a day after news of the sale was announced.

"We really wanted to clarify in the minds of our own soldiers as well as the general public what was happening, just so we were clear on the difference," said Lt Col Martin Downie, an Army spokesman.