Colombia says FARC arms passed through Venezuela

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian rebels have obtained rockets that Venezuela bought in Europe, the government in Bogota said on Monday, an accusation that could worsen already tense relations between the neighboring countries.

Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos said the government is investigating how the anti-tank weapons found their way to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

"In several operations we have been able to capture arsenals of the FARC. We have found heavy weapons, including anti-tank weapons that a European country sold to Venezuela and that ended up in the hands of the FARC," Santos told local radio.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Tareck El Aissami said the accusation is not true, calling Santos's statement "an aggression."

Colombian weekly news magazine Semana said on Sunday that Swedish missiles that were sold to the Venezuelan government have been discovered in FARC camps.

The guerrillas have been fighting for a socialist revolution since the 1960s and are labeled terrorists by Washington.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a key U.S. ally in the region, has called on the international community to stop such arms sales.

Uribe's government has accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of doing too little to combat the FARC and the cocaine trade that fuels its guerrilla insurgency. Venezuela rejects the charges.

Leftist firebrand Chavez has vowed to double Venezuela's number of tanks in response to a plan being negotiated between the United States and Colombia to increase U.S. troop presence and expand anti-drug operations in the Andean country.

(Reporting by Hugh Bronstein and Caracas newsroom; editing by Mohammad Zargham)