A Soviet-built aircraft carrier will finally be allowed to head for Macau - apparently to become a floating casino - after Beijing intervened on behalf of its Hong Kong owners to end a 15-month deadlock with Turkey. Turkey has until now refused to allow the Varyag to pass through its waters, and it is now anchored in the Black Sea. The breakthrough came after intense lobbying by China, which promised to boost trade and tourism links with Ankara. Although the mainland denies any part in buying the Varyag, the Sunday Morning Post has discovered one of the Hong Kong-based shareholders involved in the project has an address in a PLA compound in Beijing. Mainland military officials have made no secret of their wish to own an aircraft carrier. Last week, Deputy Foreign Minister Yang Wenchang visited Ankara for trade talks. A mainland official also recently met Ramazan Mirzaoglu, Turkey's Maritime Affairs Minister. Mr Mirzaoglu had previously insisted it was not safe for the carrier to go through the Bosphorus Strait, a major shipping channel. But Turkey now says it can continue its passage, subject to safety checks. Commissioned in the 1980s, the 300-metre, 60,000-tonne Varyag was intended as the pride of the Soviet Union's naval empire. But it was left high and dry when the Soviet Union collapsed. In 1992 the Ukrainian Government, which had inherited the project, suspended construction. Six years later, the Agencia Turistica e Diversoes Chong Lot Limitada, a company based in Macau, bought it for $154 million. The two Macau-based directors - Cheng Zhen-shu and Chong Lap-cheung - are understood to be former PLA naval officers. They were helped by pro-China Macau politician Ng Fok, who was accompanied by a series of mainland officials during discussions with Macau authorities over the Varyag. In 1999, Hong Kong-based Goldspot Investments Ltd bought a majority shareholding in Agencia. At that point Mr Cheng and Mr Chong switched their residential address to a Hong Kong business address formerly occupied by Chinluck (Holdings) Ltd. Both men are listed as directors of Chinluck. Chinluck has refused to discuss its role in the project. Goldspot's directors are listed as Guo Dan and Luo Xian-ping, but the majority shareholder is listed as China Securities (International) Ltd, a subsidiary of government-controlled China Securities, the mainland's premier brokerage. Mr Luo lists one of his addresses as the residential quarters of the People's Armed Police - a paramilitary force connected to the PLA - in Beijing. But when the Post called Mr Luo, he said: 'I know nothing about this.' A Macau Government spokesman said: 'There is no way that an aircraft carrier can come into Macau waters.' Naval experts believe PLA engineers want to use the Varyag as a template rather than refit it, which is considered too expensive and difficult. Neither Goldspot nor China Securities (International) would comment.