Production of Russia's defence-related output in the first quarter of 2009 rose by 2.5% year-on-year, said Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov.

According to him, there is no crisis to speak of in the defence industry. "I am not saying that the situation is simple, but financial support measures taken in this branch have noticeably stabilised the situation over the past six months," he said at a news briefing for reporters.

Mr Ivanov also said that the state defence contracts for 2009 would remain as planned, at 1.3 trillion roubles.

Commenting on relations between Russia and the European Union, Mr Ivanov said that economic cooperation between them should be more diversified, especially in high tech sectors.

According to Mr Ivanov, in recent years Russia has made and "continues making efforts to integrate the economies of Russia and the European Union, not only in terms of trade - ‘we give you oil and gas, and you give us industrial goods' - but has also invited Western partners in high tech sectors to its market". As he noted, this is already an obvious fact in aircraft building.