Washington  - Reports that Venezuela provided weapons and other support to FARC rebels in Colombia are "disturbing" and pose grave consequences for the region, the US State Department said Thursday.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that a laptop seized by the Colombian military in a controversial March 1 raid on a FARC base in Ecuador contained information showing that Venezuela had offered to help the guerillas acquire surface-to-air missiles.

Citing Colombian officials, the Post reported that the computer files appeared to show that Caracas had provided light arms and ammunition to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

"The picture painted by some of the preliminary news reports that I've seen over the past few days is disturbing, highly disturbing," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"They're serious allegations about Venezuela supplying arms and support to a terrorist organization. Certainly, that has deep implications for the people of the region as well as states in the region."

Washington has long suspected that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government has supported FARC, which the US and governments in Europe officially consider a terrorist organization.

Interpol announced Thursday in Bogota that after reviewing the electronic files, the international organization's computer experts found that the data had not been tampered with since Colombian troops seized the computer after a successfully airstrike in Ecuador to kill Raul Reyes, FARC's second-ranking commander.

But Interpol did not reveal any of the contents found on the computer used by Reyes in the rebel camp in Ecuador. The Colombian government had previously announced that Chavez's government gave FARC 300 million dollars.

"We have no reason to question at this point the legitimacy for the information," McCormack said. "So I don't think anybody's calling into - except for Venezuela, of course - calling into question the provenance of this information."

The Colombian raid in Ecuador sparked a major crisis in the region and raised concerns of a possible war between the Andean neighbours. The crisis was averted diplomatically after Colombia acknowledged that it violated Ecuadorian territory. (dpa)