"This operation is a new step in the development of our cooperation," Sergei Ignatchenko, spokesman for Russia's Federal Security Bureauformer KGB), told the RIA Novosti news agency.

"It took place for the first time since the end of the Cold War, when we opposed each other," Ignatchenko said.

His comments followed the arrest of three people, one of them a British citizen, in the US state of New Jersey on suspicion of trying to smuggle a Russian surface-to-air missile into the United States for sale to terrorists plotting an attack.

Federal Bureau of Investigation officials have said the arrests were part of a sting operation carried out in conjunction with British and Russian authorities.

Russian intelligence officers reportedly posed as arms dealers and sold the man, a British national of Indian origin, the surface-to-air missile, US television and Russian news agencies reported.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, there have been repeated concerns that arms from the increasingly-dilapidated and cash-strapped Russian army could fall into extremist hands.

SPACE.WIRE