Indonesia leader wins Russian military cooperation

MOSCOW, Dec 1 (Reuters) Indonesia's president, keen to buy 1 billion dollars worth of Russian arms, said today he had won assurances of military cooperation with Russia after talks with President Vladimir Putin.

''First and foremost, we are counting on long-term cooperation with Russia in the military sector,'' Itar-Tass news agency quoted Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as telling a joint news briefing with Putin crowning his two-day visit to Russia.

Ahead of the visit, the Russian ambassador in Jakarta said Yudhoyono was planning to discuss in Moscow a 1 billion dollars credit to purchase modern arms. Mikhail Bely said Indonesia had a ''large purchasing list''.

There were no official statements concerning the loan or any planned contracts.

Jakarta turned to Russia and East European countries for weapons several years ago when it was under an arms embargo by the United States.

Washington later restored military ties and lifted the arms embargo as a reward for Jakarta's cooperation with Washington's war on terrorism.

Jakarta, which has already bought four Sukhoi fighter planes from Russia, is negotiating for more jets to strengthen its Sukhoi fleet to 12 fighter planes.

During the visit, Indonesia's Defence Ministry and Russia's federal service on military-industrial cooperation signed a memorandum on the promotion of a bilateral programme in the sector for 2006-2010.

Russia, one of the world's leading arms traders with annual sales topping 5 billion dollars in bumper years, wants to gain markets beyond its current top buyers -- China and India.

Putin also put trade in arms among top bilateral priorities along with the space sector and nuclear energy.

In the space sector, Russia is interested in cooperating with Indonesia in the ''Air Launch'' programme, due to start in 2009.

Itar-Tass news agency quoted a spokesman for Russia's Airspace Corporation, Leonid Shirobokov, as saying the creation of a complex for launching space rockets from airplanes would cost up to 130 million dollars.

Rocket launches from a location near the equator, like in Indonesia, are easier and cheaper. Tass quoted experts as saying that launches from the complex could cost 20-23 million dollars.

REUTERS PB RN2321