March 24, 2003	Monday	Muharram 20, 1424

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WASHINGTON, March 23: The United States has protested to Russia about reports that Russian firms have sold some weapons to Iraq, officials said on Sunday.

A State Department official told reporters in Washington that the weapons sold to Iraq included anti-tank missiles, night vision goggles and jamming gear.

Moscow’s response had not been satisfactory, the official said.

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the United States recently delivered a protest to the Russian government for refusing to stop Russian arms dealers from providing illegal weapons and assistance to the Iraqi military.

The newspaper cited Bush administration sources as saying one Russian company was helping the Iraqi military to deploy electronic jamming equipment against US planes and bombs and two others have sold anti-tank missiles and thousands of night-vision goggles in violation of UN sanctions.

The sources told the newspaper Moscow had ignored US concerns about the potential threat to US forces.

“We regard this as a very serious matter,” State Department spokeswoman Brenda Greenberg said.

“We hope that the responsible Russian agencies will take our concerns seriously,” she said. “We are very concerned about reports that Russian firms are selling militarily sensitive equipment to Iraq. Such equipment in the hands of the Iraqi military may pose a direct threat to US and coalition armed forces.”

RUSSIAN DENIAL: A Russian company on Sunday flatly denied that its technicians are helping Iraq jam crucial satellite signals needed to guide bombs and military aircraft as US-led forces advance on Baghdad.

“They (US) are just making this up. Let them capture one of our personnel,” said Oleg Antonov, director of Moscow-based Aviaconversiya.

“They won’t find any of our technicians in Iraq. The Americans are trying to find a scapegoat because their bombs are not falling as accurately as they want,” he told AFP.

Contacted by AFP, the Russian foreign ministry and the US embassy in Moscow say that they could not comment on the matter.