The United States believes Russian company technicians are in Baghdad helping the Iraqis operate electronic jamming systems that could impair the US-led war against Iraq, a US official said this evening.
US President George W Bush telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to protest against alleged Russian sales of night-vision goggles, antitank missiles and global positioning system (GPS) jamming systems to Iraq, the White House said.
US officials said such sales would violate UN sanctions.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of Russia, which along with France strongly opposed the US-led war against Iraq, denied Russia had supplied Iraq with any military equipment in breach of UN sanctions.
But US officials said Washington had been worried about the alleged sales by Russian companies for months and had protested to Moscow at increasingly senior levels, culminating in Mr Bush's telephone call to Mr Putin this evening.
"The two also discussed United States' concerns, which President Bush discussed, involving prohibited hardware that has been transferred from Russian companies to Iraq," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said at his daily briefing.
US officials believe the alleged sales have been carried out by private Russian firms and they want greater oversight by Russian authorities to stop them.