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US official praises Russian efforts on Iraqi arms sales

MOSCOW, March 27 (AFP) - The United States is satisfied with recent Russian efforts to look into accusations that Russian firms sold jamming equipment and anti-tank missiles to Iraq, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in an interview published here Thursday.

"According to our information, the Russian (foreign) minister (Igor Ivanov) is to provide the United States with additional information in the near future," Armitage said in an interview published on the website of Russian daily Izvestia.

"I can say that we are currently satisfied with the information we have received," he was quoted as saying.

Armitage's comments appeared to mark an about-face in the US stance on the issue, with US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell both accusing the Russian side this week of failing to fully cooperate.

A top US diplomat said Wednesday that the United States had grown "increasingly frustrated" with Russia's failure to look into accusations, first raised in August 2002, that Russian firms sold equipment to Iraq in violation of UN sanctions.

But late Wednesday, Powell said he had won a pledge to look into the sales from his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov, who had earlier insisted that thorough Russian investigations into the charges had yielded no results.

Ivanov has also said that Moscow would treat as a "serious criminal offence" any discovery that Russian firms had violated UN sanctions against Iraq.

The companies involved have also denied the accusations.

Moscow-based Aviaconversiya said it never sold devices to Iraq that jam satellite signals used to guide bombs and military aircraft that the US-led coalition could use in its war to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

But the US diplomat said on condition of anonymity that the United States was "quite convinced that (Aviaconveriya) dealt directly with the Iraqis."

"We do also have evidence, which we shared with Russians, of personnel on the ground," he said.

The United States was unsure whether the sales went through because Russia failed to carry out a thorough investigation or "if there was an effort to conceal things," the Moscow-based diplomat added.

"We're hoping it was insufficient diligence," he said.

The United States has also accused two other companies, one of them Russian firm KBP Tula, of providing Iraq with night-vision goggles and anti-tank weapons.

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