The United States has requested the extradition of Viktor Bout, the alleged "merchant of death" arms dealer arrested in Thailand yesterday.

But the Americans will be forced to wait for their long-sought prisoner while the Thai authorities first investigate whether Mr Bout used the Asian country as a base to negotiate a weapons deal with terrorists.

The 41-year-old Russian, whose life is thought to have inspired the 2005 Nicholas Cage film Lord of War, is accused of running weapons to al-Qaeda, the Taleban and parties involved in conflicts across Africa.

He was arrested at a Bangkok hotel after a four-month sting operation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, Thai and U.S. authorities said.

The Americans want to extradite Mr Bout, but the timing still has to be “worked out" between the two nations, said Thomas Pasquarello, regional director of the DEA.

“He is called the ’Merchant of Death’ and ’Man of War’ for a reason,” he added.

Authorities in New York have accused Mr Bout of conspiring to sell millions of dollars in weapons – including 100 surface-to-air missiles and armour-piercing rockets – to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

The US considers the leftist rebels, who have been fighting Colombia’s government for more than 40 years, to be a terror group.

Mr Bout and his associate Andrew Smulian, who has so far evaded capture, were charged with “conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation.”

The DEA was involved because, according to the complaint against the men, Farc uses weapons to protect its cocaine trafficking business, which helps to finance its operations.

Mr Bout has long been one of the world’s most wanted arms traffickers, with an alleged list of customers that is said to include Charles Taylor of Liberia, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and both sides of the civil war in Angola.

He is accused of using a fleet of planes and contacts from his days in the Soviet Air Force to buy weapons in formerly communist Eastern Europe and deliver them to rebel groups around the world.

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