Mr Putin also inspected the company's production facilities, including the engine assembly line and the area of the factory that manufactures cylinder blocks.

The company will assemble 140- to 300-horsepower engines for the Russian market. They will fully conform to the Euro III, Euro IV and Euro V emission standards. By next year, the assembly line will be producing 7,000 engines per year, and by 2015 that number will increase to 25,000 units.

The project will cost a total of 2.7 billion roubles, including off-budget funds, and is expected to recoup its investment in six and a half years. Because these engines have never been produced in Russia before, experts estimate a Russian market capacity of about 100,000 a year.

Vladimir Putin was shown the new Kamaz trucks which have improved performance and an updated exterior. They are expected to be available early next year.

During his visit, the Prime Minister met with Kamaz employees and workers.

Transcript of Vladimir Putin's meeting with KAMAZ employees and workers:

Vladimir Putin: I would like to congratulate you on the launch of this new operation.

Workers: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Despite all the issues, which you are aware of, we managed to complete this project on schedule, and that is important. This is a remarkable event, because the engine is the heart of any vehicle as you know. From now on, Kamaz vehicles will have world-class engines.

We just met with our American partners. They manufacture a lot of engines around the world, including Brazil, India, China and Europe. Now, Russia will also be producing engines of the highest quality. They achieve twice the mileage, and maintenance intervals are three times longer. Most importantly, they are 15% more cost-effective. From the very start, domestic part content will be 35%, and this figure will increase to 60% pretty quickly. This is a quality, up to date product. I compliment you on manufacturing these high-quality units.

Workers: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: By the way, I visited KAMAZ last December. We mapped out a whole programme for supporting the plant and the automobile industry, and it has done the job.

Plant workers: And this happened during the most challenging period.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, and the whole program has proven successful. We allocated an additional 12.5 billion roubles for the purchase of cars and trucks for government needs, as well as an additional three billion roubles. About 8 billion roubles, or half of the total, was spent on KAMAZ trucks. We sent an additional 25 billion roubles to Rosagroleasing, five billion roubles of which were spent to purchase equipment from this plant. And we allocated an additional 20 billion roubles for municipal governments throughout the country to purchase vehicles, and some of these funds were also spent on KAMAZ trucks.

I hope that with your assistance and the active efforts of the plant's leadership, KAMAZ will gradually come out of the crisis

Plant workers: Mr Putin, nobody has been forced to take any days off in November, and we even work on Saturdays.

Vladimir Putin: This is great. We will have another opportunity to talk. I will have more of my traditional televised phone conversations with Russian citizens, and I will ask the camera crew to come to you. We will be unable to continue our discussion for now, because I have another meeting. Later, we will discuss these issues further with a TV crew here.

I wish you all the best.