MOSCOW: Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Monday US plans to lift restrictions on heavy strike drones would land a severe blow to a 1987 arms control deal regulating the export of rocket technology, the RIA news agency reported.

The Trump administration plans to reinterpret the deal between 34 nations in order to allow US defence contractors to sell more American-made drones to various nations, three defence industry executives and a US official told Reuters.

The policy change could open up sales of armed US drones to less stable governments that have been forbidden from buying them under the 33-year-old Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Reuters reported on Friday.