The erroneous shipment of the fuses, which can be used to trigger warheads on ballistic missiles, was only discovered last week, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

“We express our serious concern and strong dissatisfaction and demand the U.S. side investigate this incident,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.

“We urge the U.S. to cease selling military hardware to Taiwan and end U.S.-Taiwan military ties, or risk harming stability in the Taiwan Strait and the healthy and stable development of China-US ties.”

Nose cone assemblies containing the fuses were recovered on Monday from Taiwan where they had been held in storage after being shipped there as helicopter batteries, senior Pentagon officials said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered an investigation into the incident and a comprehensive review of the U.S. inventory of all nuclear-related components as well as of policies and procedures, the officials said.

The nearly two-year saga of the fuse shipment began in August 2006.

According to Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, the fuses, contained in four large shipping containers, had been sent from an Air Force base in the Western United States to a Defense Logistics Agency warehouse in a nearby state. The containers apparently ended up in an unclassified area, rather than a classified section where they belonged.

In August 2006, the cylindrical containers, which measured almost 33 inches (84 centimeters) high and almost 19 inches (48 centimeters) in diameter, were sent to the government of Taiwan. There they were placed in storage, U.S. officials said.

Sometime in 2007 — exactly when is not clear — Wynne said Taiwanese authorities notified U.S. officials that they did not get the batteries they had ordered. Discussions ensued for months, during which, “we, on our side, thought we were talking about different sorts of batteries. There was an effort to resolve and to reimburse them,” said Henry.

Finally, late last week, U.S. military officials realized what had been shipped to Taiwan and worked immediately to get the fuses back. They have now been recovered.

It was the second major nuclear security breach uncovered in just over six months, following the mistaken transfer of nuclear armed cruise missiles from one U.S. base to another aboard a B-52 bomber in September.

“Our policy on Taiwan arms sales has not changed. This specific incident was an error in process only and is not indicative of our policies, which remain unchanged,” Henry said.

Wu Wei-rong, director-general of Taiwan’s armaments bureau, said Wednesday that the U.S. demanded the return of the fuses only after it learned of the gravity of its error.

“The U.S. recently informed us that the parts had been mistakenly sent to Taiwan, and they asked us to dispose the parts by ourselves,” Wu said. “The U.S. then realized the parts were sensitive, controlled items which Taiwan could not deal with, and soon the parts were returned.”

At the White House, Perino said Bush “appreciates that they are taking action, and that there is a full investigation under way.”

Henry said if the incident is a violation of any treaty or agreement, it was unintentional.

“We are being totally transparent. We have corrected the situation,” he said. “The United States stands up to its treaty obligations and we’re dealing with this in the most straightforward manner we can.”

Henry said an examination of the site in Taiwan where the components had been stored after delivery indicated that they had not been tampered with. He said the components were “quite dated,” as part of a system designed in the 1960s.

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