Mr Ivanov made these remarks at a meeting of the Military Industrial Commission under the Russian Government.

The Deputy Prime Minister recalled that the draft guidelines for the state defence order would be discussed a second time. In March, "some proposals by state customers to increase the volume of allocations under the approved three-year defence order for 2008-2010 were supported, but on the condition that they will provide the necessary documents substantiating their claim," Mr Ivanov added.

He said additional work was later carried out to examine the guidelines for the state defence order. "In order to fulfil the instructions of the President and the Government with regard to the Ministry of Defence, the Federal Security Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Federal Guards Service, it has been proposed that overall spending on R&D, acquisitions and repair of weapons and military equipment should be increased by 30.1 billion roubles," the Deputy Prime Minister said.

Mr Ivanov said he did not rule out "the Commission supporting the Defence Ministry's proposals on additional allocations for compensating the growth of prices of weapons and military equipment and additional work to the tune of 87.6 billion roubles." He added, however, that this was feasible "only if the Ministry of Finance would receive approved acts by commissions that considered the reasons for the increased prices of weapons and military equipment, as well as necessary calculations, needed for an additional examination."

"The general approach is that the proposals of state customers should be supplemented with estimates and feasibility reports," he said. "We must not forget about streamlining expenditures, so that the large allocations for the state defence order will be used efficiently."

The Deputy Prime Minister also said that the Government would dramatically increase allocations for the programme to create the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) by the end of May.