SINGAPORE (AFP) - A Singapore retail magnate pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two charges related to the city-state's first organ trading case, local radio reported.

Tang Wee Sung, whose Tangs department store sits in the prime Orchard Road tourist and shopping belt, pleaded guilty to entering an illegal arrangement to purchase a kidney, 938Live reported.

He also pleaded guilty to falsely declaring that the donor was a distant relative, it said.

A court official reached by AFP could not confirm the pleas because the hearing was continuing.

Tang could receive up to three years in jail and a fine on the most serious charge of the false declaration, the radio report said.

It quoted Tang's lawyer as saying he committed the offences because he is seriously ill and was desperate to survive.

Two Indonesians were jailed and fined in July for their roles in the case.

Sulaiman Damanik, 26, was sentenced to two weeks in jail and fined 1,000 Singapore dollars (705 US), while Toni, 27, received a 14-week sentence and 2,000-dollar fine, the Straits Times newspaper reported.

Sulaiman, posing as a relative, had agreed to sell his kidney to Tang for 150 million rupiah (16,000 US dollars), the report said.

Tang's operation did not go ahead after police began investigating organ trading allegations, it said.

Toni donated a kidney to an Indonesian patient in March, and was paid around 186 million rupiah, the report said.

As in many other countries, organ-trading is banned in Singapore to prevent the exploitation of what the health ministry calls "poor and socially disadvantaged donors who are unable to make informed choices."