Transport Malta has denied international media reports that a ship carrying explosive material from Russia is bound for Malta.

According to the reports, the Malta-registered MV Ruby, currently in the North Sea, is carrying 20,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, seven times the amount which devasted large parts of Beirut in an accidental explosion four years ago.

The ship is reportedly owned by Syrian interest and chartered to a UAE company.

It departed the Kola Peninsula in August, with the destination originally indicated on the global ship tracker Marinetrafficas as being the Canary Islands. That was more recently changed to Malta. 

"There is no request for the ship to enter Maltese ports," a spokesperson for Transport Malta said.  

The ship ran aground and was damaged in a storm last week, but has been refused entry by Norway, Sweden, Lithuania and Denmark.

It remains unknown where the ship is heading, or what it intends to do with its dangerous cargo. Sources told Times of Malta that the vessel's owners were exploring various options, one of them being the transfer of the cargo to other, smaller ships.