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Rumsfeld, in Brazil, Criticizes Venezuela on Assault Rifles

SÃO PAULO, Brazil, March 23 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ratcheted up the war of words between the Bush administration and Venezuela's government on Wednesday, suggesting that the country's plans to buy 100,000 assault rifles from Russia could further destabilize an already tumultuous region.

"I can't imagine what's going to happen to 100,000 AK-47's," he said at a news conference in Brasília, the Brazilian capital, where he met with Brazil's vice president and defense minister, José Alencar. "I can't imagine why Venezuela needs 100,000 AK-47's."

"I just hope that, personally hope, that it doesn't happen," Mr. Rumsfeld added. "I can't imagine that if it did happen, that it would be good for the hemisphere."

Mr. Rumsfeld's remarks were the latest in a string of public warnings from senior American officials to Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, about what the Bush administration has cast as a worrisome arms buildup. Mr. Chávez's government has been shopping around to modernize its poorly armed 100,000-member military, raising eyebrows both in Washington and in neighboring Colombia.

Besides the assault rifles, Venezuela has agreed to buy at least 10 military helicopters from Russia and is considering updating its air force with Russian MIG's. Mr. Chávez has also talked of "military cooperation" with Brazil and has expressed interest in buying as many as 24 Super Tucano patrol planes from the Brazilian jet maker Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica, or Embraer.

The Bush administration, which has had increasingly tense relations with Venezuela since it tacitly backed a brief coup against Mr. Chávez in 2002, has suggested that the arms purchases could end up benefiting "irregular groups," a reference to Marxist rebels in neighboring Colombia. Mr. Chávez, himself a former paratrooper who staged a failed coup in 1992, has been reluctant to condemn the Colombian guerrillas overtly, prompting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to call the Venezuelan leader a "negative force" in Latin America.

Mr. Chávez has responded angrily to the criticism from Washington, going so far as to warn of the possibility of an American invasion. In addition to upgrading the military, Mr. Chávez has announced plans to expand so-called popular defense units, a sort of citizen militia.

Mr. Rumsfeld was in Brazil to discuss the country's growing leadership role in the region, including its peacekeeping mission in Haiti. But some analysts have speculated that the defense secretary may have also used the visit to ask for Brazil's help in tempering Mr. Chávez