India to test new long-range ballistic missile in 2009

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is to test a new version of its longest-range ballistic missile capable of hitting targets more than 5,000 km away, its top military scientist said on Tuesday.

The long-range Agni III+ missile is currently in the design stage, said V. K. Saraswat, chief controller (R&D) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

"We are looking for trial in early 2009," he was quoted as saying on state-owned Doordarshan television during the Indian Science Congress in Visakhapatnam, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

India's indigenous missile programme has built short- and long-range missiles, including one that can hit targets deep inside China.

Last year, India successfully tested the Agni III, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead more than 3,000 km, scientists said.

India has fought three wars with Pakistan and was on the brink of a fourth in 2002, and also fought a brief border war with China in 1962. Both China and Pakistan have their own missile arsenals that are capable of reaching almost all of India.

Although India's relations with both neighbours have been largely peaceful in recent times, New Delhi says its defence forces, the world's fourth largest, have to be modernised and deterrents put in place to ensure stability.