MOSCOW, January 10 (RIA Novosti) - A court in Texas sentenced to almost three years in prison a retired UK businessman who admitted trying to sell weapon parts to Iran, BBC said on Thursday.

UK extradited Christopher Tappin, 66, to the US last February to face charges of trying to sell missile parts to Iran.

He entered a plea deal with US prosecutors and pleaded guilty in November, admitting that he knowingly aided an illegal attempt to sell zinc/silver oxide reserve batteries to Iran between December 2005 and January 2007. The batteries are a special component of the Hawk Air Defence Missile.

"As part of the agreement, both the US government and the British government have promised to actively support my repatriation to Britain at the earliest opportunity,” BBC quoted Tappin as saying.

Charges against him entailed a maximum punishment of 35 years in prison. The judge sentenced Tappin for 33 months in prison and imposed a fine of $11,357 on him.