MOSCOW - Russia reacted angrily yesterday to US State Department sanctions leveled this week against an arms trading company, calling it an "arrogant application" of US laws abroad.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the US move to ban government agencies from dealing with the company Rosoboronexport, which is managed by a close friend of the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, is "absolutely incompatible with the new realities in the current world structure."

In addition to the Russian company, the State Department imposed sanctions against companies in Venezuela, China, Sudan, South Korea, and United Arab Emirates for allegedly selling technology to Iran, North Korea, and Syria that could lead to weapons of mass destruction.

The United States has stepped up its international efforts to apply diplomatic pressure on Iran to make it halt the development of nuclear fuels, which could be used in a nuclear bomb.

"If somebody in Washington thinks that in this way the United States will make Russia more accommodating in accepting the US approach to the solution of the Iran nuclear problem, this is a mistake," Lavrov said yesterday.

Lavrov insisted that the sales were legal and met international guidelines.

But State Department spokeswoman Sara Mangiaracina said the Russian company and others were in violation of the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act passed by Congress in 2007.

The sanctions against Russia surprised some observers because they came after a meeting last week in Finland of the US and Russian joint military chiefs of staff, the first high level encounter since the Russian invasion of Georgia in August.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

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