Thais arrest "Merchant of Death" arms dealer

Viktor Bout, an international arms dealer dubbed the "Merchant of Death," was arrested in Thailand and charged in New York on Thursday with trying to sell weapons to Colombian rebels, officials said.

But, target the United States, was charged with conspiring to sell millions of dollars of weapons of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the FARC, the United States Attorney Michael Garcia said in New York.

The United States, which has given billions of dollars in military aid to Colombia to fight the Marxist rebels and drug cartels, plans to pursue Bout's extradition from Thailand, officials said.

The FARC are fighting four decades ago rebellion against the Colombian government and appointed as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

This group is at the center of a diplomatic dispute that the threat of military conflict this week, after Colombia crossed the border into Ecuador to attack FARC rebels, and kill one of their commanders on Saturday. Venezuela, Ecuador an ally of the United States and antagonist, leaped in the dispute, and both countries have sent more troops to its border with Colombia.

Bout's associate Andrew Smulian, 46, was charged on Thursday with conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization. Smulian's whereabouts where not immediately clear.