Hemant Lakhani, 68, a Briton of Indian descent, appeared in a US court on Wednesday on accusations he smuggled one Russian shoulder-held SA-18 missile into the US and planned a further shipment of 50 such weapons.

His arrest was the culmination of an 18-month long joint operation by British, Russian and US services.

The Russians sold Lakhani an Igla-type shoulder-held system they had de-activated and which the Briton tried to sell on to an FBI "cooperative witness" posing as the representative of a Somali militant group.

Lakhani tried to obtain the weapons in Russia "by every possible means, including through contacts with criminal groups", said the FSB press office quoted by Interfax.

The FSB "came across Lakhani as he had arrived in Russia and made attempts to get in touch with potential vendors of such weapons," according to the same source.

The Russian services took action after receiving "general information regarding attempts by foreign nationals to acquire a portable surface-to-air missile device in Russia or the CIS."

In Washington on Wednesday, US officials had told ABC television news that Lakhani was a small time arms merchant with no known criminal record for arms dealing.

Lakhani had no contacts in Russia to buy the missiles before the sting, the officials told ABC, and the US case against him was largely based on the testimony of a drug informant seeking leniency.

Lakhani appeared in Newark, New Jersey, with Moinuddeen Ahmed Hameed, a Malaysian, who was charged with helping to finance the arms deal. A third man, Yehuda Abraham, 75, was charged separately in New York.

Russia is fertile ground for arms traffickers in view of the huge stocks from the Soviet era, rampant corruption and a powerful mob.

A US congressional report this year estimated that the worldwide inventory of portable surface-to-air missiles probably exceeds 500,000 and may be as high as 700,000.

In Moscow on Wednesday, FSB spokesman Sergei Ignachenko had hailed the joint sting operation with British and US services as marking the dawn of a new era in cooperation between Russia and its former Cold War-era foes.

"It took place for the first time since the end of the Cold War, when we opposed each other," he said.

The best-known portable missiles are the American-made Stinger and the Russian-made SA-7.

Aviation officials have said the missiles can hit jets from as far as five miles (eight kilometers) away and can reach altitudes of about 10,000 feet (3,000 meters).

WAR.WIRE