Kalashnikov rifle inventor says conscience clear

MOSCOW, July 6 (Reuters) The man who created the Kalashnikov automatic rifle exactly 60 years ago said today that his conscience was clear, even though his invention has been used to kill many thousands of people.

Mikhail Kalashnikov was a young tank commander recovering in hospital from injuries sustained in World War Two when he took a child's notebook and sketched out the design that would later become the AK-47.

Sixty years later, the rifle is the weapon of choice for many -- be they Iraqi insurgents, Venezuela's military or African child soldiers in T-shirts and flip-flops. Between 50 and 80 million have been produced and they even feature on the flag of Mozambique.

''Some people say how can you sleep at night, because of your work so many people have died?''' 87-year-old Kalashnikov told reporters at an event at Moscow's Armed Forces Museum to mark his weapon's 60th anniversary.

''I tell them I sleep fine. It is politicians that are to blame because they fail to come to agreement and instead resolve their problems with violence,'' he said.

''I created the weapon at the time of World War Two, when we had to defeat the most powerful enemy, Fascist Germany ... I created this weapon so it could be used to defend the borders of our country.'' RELIABLE HANDS The AK-47 was named after its creator -- the acronym stands for 'Avtomat Kalashnikova' or 'Kalashnikov's automatic weapon' -- and 1947, the year the first experimental versions went into production.

The weapon and its later modifications have become the world's most popular assault rifle, largely because it is cheap, easy to use, has few moving parts and rarely goes wrong.

Kalashnikov, who has a slight tremor in his hands and speaks in a high-pitched croak, is feted at home as a national treasure.

He accepted there was a problem with the manufacture of unlicensed Kalashnikovs which could be bought by criminals and insurgents. ''We need to make sure each weapon only ends up in reliable hands,'' he said.

But that aside, he said he had few regrets, not even giving up the copyright to his design to the Soviet state.

''People say: 'If you lived in the West you would have been a multi-millionaire by now.''' ''They get hung up on the green stuff, on dollars. But are there not other valuable things in life? Which of the Western weapons makers can say that a bronze statue of them has been built in their home village?'' REUTERS RKM BST2102