Venezuela may acquire Russian transport planes - arms exporter

Venezuela may soon buy several Russian military transport aircraft, a department head for Russia's state-controlled arms exporter Rosoboronexport has said.

Sergei Kornev, of Rosoboronexport's Air Force department, made the announcement after the Farnborough Air Show outside London ended on Sunday.

"We hope to conclude a contract in transport aviation with Venezuela," Kornev said.

"We hold firm positions in arms delivery on the Latin American market. This is interesting for us, we succeed in concluding contracts and we fulfill our obligations," he said.

Russia has already exported Su-30MK2 Flanker-G aircraft, Mi-17B-5 Hip-H, Mi-35 Hind-E helicopter gunships as well as Mi-26T Halo freight transport helicopters to Venezuela.

India, Venezuela, Algeria and Malaysia are the major buyers of Russian military aircraft. The total volume of deliveries to these countries exceeded $2 billion in 2008.