WASHINGTON, March 24 Kyodo U Pres...

WASHINGTON, March 24 Kyodo

U President George W Bush told Russian President Vladimir Putin forward Monday that the United States is businessed that prohibited hardware has been transferred from Russian companies to Iraq, the White House said.

''We are excessively concerned that there are reports of ongoing cooperation and support to Iraqi military forces,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said at a pres briefing.

Fleischer said the U has ''clear evidence'' that a Russian company has supplied Iraq with equipment which can jam global positioning plans and that other Russian military hardware, of the like kind as night-vision goggles and antitank guided missiles, were sold to Iraq.

According to Fleischer, Bush also spoke separately with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar across the phone to discuss the ongoing war in Iraq.

Bush conven a meeting of the National Security Council in succession Monday morning before meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and having luncheon with Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Fleischer said.

At a Pentagon pres briefing later in the day, Army Maj. Gen Stanley McChrystal, substitute director for operation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said coalition attack helicopters have begun attacking Iraq's elite Republican Guard forces arrayed around Baghdad.

the same Apache helicopter went down during the fighting and the party is missing, he said.

McChrystal said coalition air forces flew more than 1000 missions Sunday to continue bombardments in succession key Iraqi regime leadership targets, suppres ballistic missile threats and degrade Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard units.

More than 2000 precision-guided bomb have been dropp since the beginning of the war in Iraq last Thursday, he said.

Iraqi forces, meanwhile, fired brace missiles Sunday and Monday into Kuwait, still both missiles were intercepted by way of Patriot missiles, McChrystal said.

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