LONDON (Reuters) - British transport minister Grant Shapps said on Wednesday Britain had used new aviation sanctions to impound an aircraft after making it a criminal offence for Russian aircraft to fly or land in the United Kingdom.

       "Last night, I also signed a law which closes off some of those loopholes to do with trying to work out the ownership of some of these aircraft," Shapps told BBC TV.

       "There is one such aircraft on the ground at the moment at Farnborough that I've essentially impounded whilst we carry out further investigations for the last few days - and it's very important that we have the laws available to enable that to happen."

       (Reporting by William James, writing by Michael Holden)