Chavez confrims plan to buy Russian jet fighters

CARACAS: President Hugo Chavez confirmed Sunday that Venezuela would buy Russian fighter jets during a planned visit to Moscow and warned that Caracas could sell its US-made F-16s to Iran.

"We will soon be in Moscow because we will buy Russian fighter jets to defend these skies and land," Chavez said in a speech on state-owned television.

Chavez hailed the Russian Sukhoi fighters as "the best in the world, 100 times better than the F-16s."

The leftist leader did not say when he planned to travel to Russia, but Venezuela's ambassador to Moscow has said the trip could take place in August or September.

Chavez also said he supported Venezuelan General Alberto Muller Rojas's recommendation to sell the F-16s. Caracas says Washington refuses to supply replacement parts for the warplanes.

The United States has ordered an arms sales ban against Venezuela, accusing Caracas of failing to provide assistance in the "war on terror".

"General Muller made an interesting statement, he said that if they do not want to sell us the F-16 parts, we would sell the planes," Chavez said. "Why lose the money? It's millions of dollars, so Muller said we would sell them to Iran, and that is possible."

But the United States has indicated that it would not allow Venezuela to sell the F-16s to Iran.

"Any time you have the sale of US military equipment to a foreign government, there are clauses and there are agreements that are signed," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said last week.

"And part of those agreements are that, without the written consent of the United States, you can't transfer these defense articles, and in this case F16s, to a third country," he said.

"And I would expect that, even if such a request were made, that it would not be forthcoming from the US government," McCormack added.