The volume of US government arms sales to other countries has jumped to a record high of $38.1 billion in 2009, showing a 4.7 percent increase.

US arms sales are expected to hit a similar mark in 2010, according to Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency

US weapons sales are expected to top $37.9 billion in fiscal 2010, which began October 1, Vanessa Murray, an agency spokeswoman, said in a written reply to Reuters.

The bumper 2009 sales reflected a 465 percent growth from an arms sales "low point" in the fiscal year 1998, according to Vice Admiral Jeffrey Wieringa, head of the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

Many, if not most, of the pacts signed in the fiscal year 2009 that ended September 30, are part of a boom in US conventional weapons sales that started under former US President George W. Bush.

The 2009 sales were up from $36.4 billion in sales agreements in 2008 and $23.3 billion in 2007, said the agency, which administers the Pentagon's Foreign Military Sales program, a key part of US alliance-building and maintenance.

Top US arms manufacturers, such as Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman Corp., General Dynamics Corp. and Raytheon Co. are looking to boost their overseas sales to help hedge Pentagon belt-tightening at home on big-ticket arms programs.

The top purchasing countries in 2009 were the United Arab Emirates ($7.9 billion), Afghanistan ($5.4 billion) and Saudi Arabia ($3.3 billion), followed by Taiwan ($3.2 billion), Egypt ($2.1 billion), Iraq ($1.6 billion), NATO ($924.5 million), Australia ($818.7 million) and South Korea ($716.6 million), Murray said.

HSH/TG/DT