India, Israel, Russia sign Phalcon radar deal

India's rival, Pakistan, has said the system would upset the balance of power in South Asia, where the two major powers have fought three wars since 1947 and now have nuclear weapons.

The advanced Israeli-made Phalcon radar systems are to be fitted on converted Russian-made Ilyushin transport plane that India will purchase from Moscow.

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The deal, finalised during the visit to India last month by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was signed on Friday morning, Indian Defence Ministry spokesman Amitabha Chakrabarti told the AP.

Defence Secretary Ajay Prasad signed the agreement with retired Major General Yasi Ben Hanan, head of Sibat, the Israeli defense ministry's licensing agency for the Phalcon.

Mikhail Denisov, the first deputy chairman of Russia's State Committee for Military Technical Cooperation, also signed, Russian Ambassador Alexander M Kadakin told the AP.

Technical discussion between the three sides were concluded recently and the agreement was cleared, an Indian official told the AP.

India and Israel had been negotiating on the Phalcon for several years.

India has been seeking to strengthen its defences by acquiring the airborne warning and control systems that can detect aerial threats and serve as a platform to direct Indian combat jets to targets.

Pakistan, however, has criticised what it called India's weapons shopping spree, saying it is dangerous for the subcontinent, where the two major powers have fought three wars since their independence from British colonialism in 1947.

"We believe that such defence deals will upset the conventional military balance," Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told the AP in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. He said the Phalcon deal is "worrying for us," but said Pakistan is capable of defending itself.

Ahmed said during a recent visit to the United States, Pakistan's Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali raised the issue of "Israel and Russia's defence deals with India."

Israel's Deputy Prime Minister, Yosef Lapid, had told Indian journalists last month that the system "will ensure that the skies of your area are under your surveillance in a very effective way."

He said Israel had no animosity toward Pakistan, but "our good relations with India are to do with defence, and every country has the right to defend itself." Pakistan does not recognise Israel.