"We're very concerned that those weapons could end up in the hands of FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), for example, a very destabilising force in South America," Bush told the Russian daily Izvestia.

Bush will visit Moscow on Sunday and Monday for talks with President Vladimir Putin and commemorations marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

In March, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld spoke out against the sale of the AK-47 automatic rifles, as well as plans by Venezuela, whose President Hugo Chavez has tense relations with Washington, to buy Russian attack helicopters and fighter jets.

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