Russia, India boost defence ties but no nuclear deal

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and India agreed on Monday to boost defence ties by jointly developing a new military transport aircraft but they were unable to sign a major nuclear deal because of international restrictions against New Delhi.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed to settle years of wrangling over $1 billion of debts owed to Moscow since Soviet times and use them to develop the transport aircraft.

Singh said both sides were working on a deal that will allow Russia to build four more reactors at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu. But no agreement was signed.

"We paid special attention to cooperation in the sphere of nuclear cooperation, to the sphere of military-technical cooperation," Putin told reporters.

"Defence cooperation is one of the pillars of our strategic partnership," Singh said. "We share similar world views on most of the regional and global issues."

Russia is competing with the United States for influence in India, a Cold War ally of Moscow which the Kremlin sees as a growing partner in Asia.

But India, which wants to buy billions of dollars of weapons as it rearms, has been unhappy with holdups on major Russian arms contracts, including a 3-year delay to a $1.5 billion aircraft carrier modernisation.

Putin brushed aside any talk of a chill in relations, saying he hoped Singh would feel the warmth of Russia's welcome despite the freezing Moscow winter. Singh said talks were superb.