The US, Russia and a UN war crimes tribunal all want Lord of War Viktor Bout - but Thailand says the Russian arms trafficker will have to be prosecuted in Bangkok first.

Pol Lt-Gen Adisorn Nonsi, chief of the Central Investigation Bureau, said the suspect will be charged and put on trial for procuring weapons or assets to assist terrorist training or operations.

In Thailand, the maximum penalty for these offences is 10 years in prison and a fine of 200,000 baht.

According to Pol Lt-Gen Adisorn, Thai police will ask the court on Saturday for permission to detain Mr Boiut for 12 days of further questioning.

The Crime Suppression Division has set up an investigation team headed by CSD deputy chief Pol Col Petcharat Saengchai to look into the suspect's alleged arms dealing activities.

He said the CSD will jointly expand the investigation with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for the time being. Pol Lt-Gen Anusorn said negotiations on Mr Bout's extradition would need to await the outcome of any prosecution here.

Bout, 41, was detained Thursday at a hotel in Bangkok, where American officials said he had come to finalise a deal to sell and transport portable surface-to-air missiles and other weapons to men he believed represented the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

But the multimillion-dollar deal he allegedly thought he had with Colombian rebels was really the culmination of an elaborate four-month sting operation concocted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

The US considers the cocaine-trafficking leftist rebels, who have been fighting Colombia's government for more than 40 years, a terrorist group. Bout and associate Andrew Smulian, who is still at large, face a US charge of "conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation.''

Handcuffed and expressionless, the chubby Russian was paraded before journalists Friday at a Thai police news conference where he refused to answer questions. He has previously denied charges that he sells illicit arms.

The US is seeking Bout's extradition. The timing of any extradition still has to be "worked out'' with Thai authorities, Thomas Pasquarello, the DEA's regional director, said at the news conference.

A high-ranking US government official with knowledge of Bout's history said the Russian did business in the past with the FARC as well as with insurgency groups, dictators and terror organisations in southwest Asia and Africa. The official agreed to discuss Bout only if not quoted by name.

A UN travel ban imposed on Bout said he supported the Liberian regime of former President Charles Taylor in its effort to destabilise neighbouring Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to that West African nation's diamonds, which became known as "blood diamonds'' for the warring they inspired.

Stephen Rapp, chief prosecutor of a UN-backed war crimes tribunal, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, said Friday that he would like to put Bout on trial. "Would we like to get our hands on Bout? Very much,'' he said.

Rapp said atrocities against civilians and other abuses committed in the wars that wracked Sierra Leone and elsewhere in West and Central Africa were mainly the fault of rebel forces and political leaders.

"But individuals like Viktor Bout are also responsible and it's important that they also face justice,'' Rapp said. "It is frankly a question I often get in outreach around Sierra Leone: 'Why aren't you prosecuting the Viktor Bouts of the world?'''

Bangkok Post