California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked an Ohio museum to return his Austrian army tank so he can reward school children with rides in it.

The Austrian-born Terminator star plans to offer inner-city Los Angeles kids the chance to travel in the vintage military vehicle if they stay in school, work hard and avoid drugs.

Schwarzenegger and Warren Motts, the owner of Motts Military Museum in Ohio, obtained the M47 tank from the Austrian government and had it shipped to America in 1999.

The actor drove the tank during his one-year of compulsory military service in Austria in 1965.

The vehicle was initially displayed in a Columbus, Ohio shopping mall outside one of Schwarzenegger’s Planet Hollywood restaurants - before it found a more permanent home at the Motts Military Museum in nearby Groveport.

On 19 February (08), the tank was transported to California, where it now awaits its new morale-boosting tour of duty.

Mott says, "I’m pleased we had the opportunity to have it and let people see it. It was neat to have a Hollywood connection."