By Agencies

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Russia is to build 12 nuclear reactors in India, half of them by 2017, the head of Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom has announced.

Sergei Kiriyenko, speaking in the Indian capital New Delhi on Friday, said six of the reactors will be built between 2012 and 2017.

"So far it is clear that it will be 12 [reactors]. And this is not the final figure," he said.

Some of the units will be located in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where two reactors are currently being built. One reactor is planned to be built in the eastern state of West Bengal after 2017.

Kiriyenko is accompanying Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister, on a visit to India to sign a series of lucrative arms deals.

Uday Bhaskar, a New Delhi-based defence and security analyst, said that Putin's visit was significant in many ways.

"This trip is about consolidating their relationship. There are a number of defence and strategic deals that will be signed. I also think there will be some political issues talked about such as how to deal with Afghanistan and also the rise of China," he said.

Controversial deal

Russian officials have said Putin will sign more than a dozen pacts amounting to $10bn, including an accord to resolve the troubled sale of a refitted Soviet-era aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov.

Price disputes have stood in the way of the sale of the Admiral Gorshkov and delayed deliveries, sparking concerns in Moscow that India may be planning to end its dependence on Russian military equipment.

Russia supplies 70 per cent of India's military hardware, but in recent years New Delhi has looked to other military suppliers, including Israel and the US.

Other deals that Putin will seal include a contract to sell India 29 MiG fighter jets.

Yury Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy aide, said the new accord would "suit both sides" and help put the dispute over Admiral Gorshkov behind them.

"We have an enormous interest in India," Ushakov said in advance of Putin's arrival in New Delhi.

Trade relations

Together with Brazil and China, Russia and India make up the so-called BRIC grouping of major developing economies seeking to promote a multipolar world economy not dominated by the US.

But at just over $7.5bn in 2009, trade turnover remains minuscule and the two countries will aim to increase it to $20bn by 2015.

According to Indian officials, energy is emerging as a new focus of co-operation between oil and gas-rich Russia and energy-starved India, which is always on the lookout for new fuel sources to power its growing economy.

The strong ties between Moscow and New Delhi date back to the 1950s.

But India has in recent years also taken care to balance this friendship by fostering closer relations with the US.

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