US approved private arms sales $40 billion in 2009

New figures show the U.S. approved $40 billion in private arms sales in 2009, with more than $7 billion to Mideast and North African nations that are struggling with political upheaval.

From 2008 to 2009, the U.S. authorized increasing sales of military shipments to the now-toppled Egyptian government of Hosni Mubarak and the embattled kingdom of Bahrain. But the U.S. reduced such sales to Moammar Gadhafi's Libyan government.

The $40 billion total during the first year of the Obama administration reflects a rise in approved arms sales over the final year of the Bush administration in 2008, when the State Department licensed $34.2 billion in defense sales.

The latest figures describe sales that the State Department authorized from private U.S. defense companies to other countries. The figures don't include direct U.S. military aid to other nations.