Colombian vice-President Moscow-bound for arms talks

COLOMBIA: Colombian vice-president Francisco Santos will visit Moscow next month to discuss buying arms from Russia, and to try to persuade them to reduce such sales to Venezuela, a press report said Tuesday.

"It is time for our countries to deepen our relations," Santos told the daily Kommersant. "We can do a lot together."

Santos said he had approached the Russian authorities directly to arrange the meeting, which will run from June 1 to June 11. A Russian foreign ministry official confirmed the visit, the paper reported.

The paper also suggested that Santos would try to persuade Moscow to revise its policy towards Latin America, particularly in regards to arms sales.

Over the last three years, Russia has sold 24 Sukhoi fighters, 53 helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov automatic rifles to Venezuela, its biggest client in the region, for more than three billion dollars, the paper noted.

Colombia has accused Venezuela of supplying Colombia's left-wing FARC guerillas with weapons, a charge that President Hugo Chavez has denied. Moscow, Wednesday, AFP