The government also ratified three supplemental accords: one on the financing of the purchase, another on the US government loan to Poland for the purchase, and a third on US compensatory, or offset, investments in the Polish economy.

Under the terms of the agreement, the biggest defence procurement deal in eastern Europe to date, the first 16 planes will be delivered to Poland in 2006 and their payment will be due from 2010.

Lockheed Martin won the contract in December, beating bids from British-Swedish consortium BAE Systems-SAAB with its Jas-39 Gripen and France's Dassault Aviation with its Mirage 2000-5.

The fighter jets are needed to bring Poland's military up to the standards of NATO, which it joined in 1999.

In what it called the biggest offset investment in its history, the United States pledged to make 44 investments, which could inject as much as 12 billion dollars into the Polish economy, over the next 10 years.

The United States is currently the second biggest investor in Poland after France.

SPACE.WIRE