Venezuela, Spain sign military deal
Venezuela clinched a deal worth 2 billion US dollars with Spain on Monday to purchase transport planes and coastal patrol ships.

Venezuelan Defense Minister Orlando Maniglia signed the contract here with his Spanish counterpart Jose Bono for four corvettes, four coastal patrol ships, 10 C-295 transport planes and two maritime surveillance planes.

The aircraft and ships will be supplied by two Spanish companies, Ibericas Casas and Navantia. The first batch will arrive in Venezuela in 18 months and the whole order should be completed within three years.

Maniglia said the purchase would strengthen Venezuela's armed forces and turned a planned maritime strategy into a reality.

Bono said at the signing ceremony that what Spain sold to Venezuela were neither fighter planes nor war weapons. Both the patrol ships and the airplanes were for Venezuela's self-defense and self-protection, he said.

"What the Spanish government is interested in is to create jobs," he added. The contract would create 900 jobs in the coming year.

The United States has voiced opposition to the deal which was announced by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero during his visit to Venezuela in March.

The aircraft Spain wants to sell to Venezuela have 50 to 60 percent of US components and therefore would require a US export license.

"The US government's negative reaction to this deal was part ofthe concept they want to impose on the world, " Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said at the signing ceremony. "This act today, more than just a commercial act, it is one of dignity."

"Spain does not kneel before the empire," he said.

Chavez has said the ships will be used to fight Venezuelan drugtraffickers. The country's neighbor Colombia is the world's largest cocaine exporter.

Washington said on Monday it was concerned about the planned sale of planes with US military systems, although it admitted thatthere is no final conclusion on the question yet.

"In terms of the sale of some military systems by Spain to Venezuela, we have expressed our concerns to the government of Spain concerning those sales, and we are currently looking at technology licensing issues related to that sale," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a briefing.