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Venezuela may buy soon Su-30 jet-fighters, Iyushin Il-76 transport aircrafts, Il-78 tanker aircrafts, Kilo submarines and Mi-28 helicopters, and is also likely to purchase Chinese products to diversify military procurement, said the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) of Great Britain in its report titled The Military Balance, a comprehensive analysis of the military situation of some 170 countries. According to the document, military expenditures in Latin American and the Caribbean grew 91 percent between 2003 and 2008. 

According to the text, which was reported by EFE, last year Venezuela "increased its defense budget once again," thanks to oil windfall. In 2008, the initial Venezuelan defense budget totaled USD 3.31 billion, but the British think-tank does not rule out the possibility that Venezuela revises upward its defense spending as in previous years. 

The IISS added that the impact of Venezuela's military strengthening on the region is "well illustrated by the trend of defense spending in Brazil," which since 2005 has increased by nearly 10 percent annually, and in 2008 totaled USD 20.1 billion.