Russia sold six billion dollars (4.6 billion euros) of weapons last year, the director of Moscow's military-technological co-operation service, Mikhail Dmitriev, was quoted as saying on Tuesday by the ITAR-TASS news agency. "The portfolio of orders is relatively high, at 14 to 15 billion dollars," Dmitriev said during a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Dmitriev also noted the wide geographic range of the orders for arms.

"In addition to the traditional partners, the countries of south-east Asia such as Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar, as well as Malaysia and South Korea are also rather active," he said without providing details.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005