The two sides, however, pledged to pursue deals that eluded India and Russia despite two days of intense talks between teams led by visiting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov and Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes.

Klebanov and Fernandes hinted at the deadlock on the leasing of several TU-22 long-range strategic bombers, as well as the purchase of the ageing Russian aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshkov.

"The technical discussions have been completed. The price negotiation is what needs to be done," Fernandes told a joint press conference at the end of the talks.

"How much time it will take is too difficult to forecast at this time."

There was also no sign during Klebanov's trip of a widely expected deal on the Indian Navy leasing two Russian nuclear submarines.

"I am not ready to address the question concerning nuclear-powered submarines, because I am not holding negotiations on this point," Klebanov said.

"As far as the Gorshkov and TU-22 bombers are concerned, we are finalising negotiations," he added.

Officials said if agreements were reached on all the proposals the total Russian bill for India could be in excess of three billion dollars.

Moscow, which had previously leased India a nuclear submarine, is presently pressuring New Delhi to shun Western arms bazaars and instead pick up Russian hardware such as the MiG-AT advanced jet trainer and an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS).

India has been negotiating with Israel for its Phalcon AWACS and with British Aerospace for its Hawk jet trainer.

The three protocols that were signed Friday between India and Russia involved one on collaboration in warship building, developing land-based systems for the army, and the aviation sector.

The two others included military and technical cooperation with Fernandes saying the countries had agreed to the joint development of a "fifth-generation" fighter aircraft.

A top Indian defence source said the protocol on cooperation contained provisions for joint ventures in the defence sector, indigenisation of Russian military products as well as joint production and transfer of advanced defence technology to India.

The source said India and Russia also agreed to mass produce an anti-ship cruise missile, which was jointly tested from Indian soil in June last year.

"The supersonic missile which has a 280-kilometre (174-mile) range will be now jointly produced," the source said.

India describes the missile, developed by BrahMos, a joint venture formed between India's Defence Research and Development Organisation and Russia's State Unitary Enterprise NPO Mashinostroyenia in 1998, as the first of its kind in the world.

Defence Minister Fernandes billed the cruise missile venture as a "watershed" in the history of bilateral defence cooperation, which dates back to the early 1950s when India was solely dependent on then Soviet Union for military supplies.

Faced with a decline in bilateral trade, India and Russia agreed on Thursday to vigorously pursue new areas of economic cooperation, including joint development and third-country export of a 100-seat multi-purpose transport aircraft.

Almost 70 percent of India's defence assets are Russian built and since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 India has been facing a massive crunch in military spares, especially for its fleeting of MiG war jets.

Biman Mukherji contributed to part of this report

All rights reserved. � 2002 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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