The Kremlin sharply rebuked Washington yesterday over its allegations that Russian firms had sold arms to Iraq, saying the spat could further damage relations already undermined by Moscow's fierce opposition to war in the Gulf, writes Daniel McLaughlin in Moscow.
President Bush challenged President Vladimir Putin on Monday night over the alleged arms deals, which Washington says involved the transfer of advanced anti-tank missiles, night-vision goggles and electronic jamming equipment to the Iraqi military, in contravention of UN sanctions.
"President Putin assured President Bush that he would look into it," the White House spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, said after the two men spoke by telephone. "President Bush said he looked forward to hearing the results."
The Kremlin's response was swift and uncharacteristically terse. "The matter concerns unproven public assertions that could damage relations between the two countries," Mr Putin told the US leader according to his press secretary, Mr Alexei Gromov.
It was actually the Russian President who raised the issue and who informed Mr Bush that Moscow had already given Washington information regarding the absence of any such arms deals between Russia and Iraq, Mr Gromov said yesterday.
"What's more, the United States has been presented with our questions regarding the same kind of problems, to which we have not received any answers," Mr Gromov said, without giving details.
Mr Putin also assured the White House that Russia had not broken any UN sanctions, a point underlined by his Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, in a phone call to the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, on Monday.
"Russia sticks to its international obligations, and checks have revealed nothing to confirm US fears on this matter," Mr Ivanov told Mr Powell of the alleged arms deals. He also underlined Russia's opposition to war in Iraq, and its support for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
Both companies cited by Washington as supplying Iraq with the high-tech military technology balked at the accusations.
"The US allegation against our company is baseless," the KBP company said in a statement yesterday from its base in the central Russian city of Tula, from where Washington says it supplied Baghdad with its Kornet anti-tank missiles.
"But if our highly effective system was in Iraq in significant numbers, then the US land forces would have suffered far greater losses," the statement said.
Mr Oleg Antonov, head of the Aviakonversiya firm accused by Washington of providing Iraq with jamming devices capable of disorientating guided missiles, was equally dismissive. "The Americans simply need to find a scapegoat, to explain their failures in Iraq," he said.
Aviakonversiya's small, relatively cheap electronic jammers have been widely shown at arms fairs and discussed in the media in recent years. The company claims they can scramble global positioning systems which guide "smart bombs" to their target within a 200km range.
The US placed KBP on a blacklist last year for allegedly selling its anti-tank system to Syria, which Washington considers a sponsor of terrorism.
Reacting to the US accusations, the Russian Atomic Energy Minister, Mr Alexander Rumyantsev, yesterday urged the US to question London over the activities of a British-based firm in Iran.
Mr Rumyantsev said international inspectors in Iran had found a centrifuge complex with the potential to produce weapons-grade uranium.
"The media have already published some reports that it was the British-Dutch firm Urenco that supplied Iran with equipment and technology to make weapons of mass destruction," Interfax news agency quoted Mr Rumyantsev as saying.