New Delhi, Mar 4 : Amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters by the Indian Air Force (IAF) from an Italian firm, the Congress-led UPA Government today announced that it would change its defence procurement policy.

Defence Minister A. K. Antony, who was replying to questions in the Lok Sabha on the allegations of kickbacks to the tune of Rs 362 crore in the Rs 3,600 crore deal to procure 12 VVIP choppers from AgustaWestland, said ''within a few months we are going to change the defence procurement procedure again''.

Antony further said that the government had to import defence equipment because the services require the most modern equipment to meet their operational necessity.

"Because of the operational necessity of the Services, on the request that they need the most modern equipment to meet the operational necessity, government moves to import any high value equipment from foreign sources," he added.

The Defence Minister further said the government would give more priority to indigenisation so that Indian public sector and private sector can play a major role in producing state-of-the-art equipment for the Indian forces.

The defence procurement policy was revised as recently as 2011.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last week received a fresh set of documents from the Ministry of Defence related to the AgustaWestland chopper deal.

The CBI has so far named 11 people, including former Air Force chief S. P. Tyagi, and his three cousins in its preliminary enquiry into the AgustaWestland deal for 12 VVIP helicopters.

The CBI team has registered the preliminary enquiry on the basis of some important documents obtained from the Italian probe agencies into the alleged payment of kickbacks by AgustaWestland in India to bag the deal, and a full-fledged case would be registered once the it finds sufficient evidence.

The Defence Ministry had earlier threatened to cancel the deal and sought a CBI probe after the CEO of AgustaWestland''s parent company, Finmeccanica, was arrested in Italy for paying bribes. (ANI)