Moscow - Yemen plans to purchase more fighter jets among other military hardware from Russia, President Ali Abdullah Salah said in an interview with Vremyna Novosti daily published Thursday.

The Yemeni president made the comments at the end of a three-day visit to Moscow, where he met with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev for talks on military and trade ties as well as piracy off the gulf country's coast.

"These (the MiG-29) are excellent aircraft. We have had them for a long time. Suffice it to say that we are planning to acquire more of these aircraft and probably MiG-35 fighters as well," Saleh was quoted by the paper as saying.

New Delhi, Feb 26 : Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin, presently on an official visit to India, met External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee here last evening.

This meeting is of significance after Russia signed more than 700 million dollars in deals to supply India nuclear reactors with fuel pellets.

Moscow - Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom warned it could again cut supplies to Ukraine in early March over 400 million dollars in new debt, a Russian newspaper reported Thursday.

Kommersant daily said new cuts were discussed at a board of directors meeting this week after Ukraine failed to pay for February supplies, an unnamed participant told the paper.

"If 400 million dollars is not paid on March 7, then on March 8 we will again have to cut off the gas to Ukraine," the insider quoted the head of Gazprom's finance department, Andrei Kruglov, as saying at the meeting.

Moscow - Russia's chief military prosecutor said Wednesday several top Navy officials were under investigation for smuggling 18 million dollars in contraband weapons for sale to China, Russian news agencies reported.

Arms dealers smuggled anti-submarine rockets and aerial bombs out of Russia to Central Asia where they were to be sold to China, army prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky said.

Moscow/Tashkent, Uzbekistan - Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov agreed Wednesday to allow NATO and US troops transit through the Central Asian country to supply operations in Afghanistan.

Uzbekistan joins Tajikistan and Russia in officially approving the shipment of building supplies, medicines and water for use by US-led coalition forces fighting in Afghanistan.

"Uzbekistan has agreed to the transit of non-military cargo to Afghanistan," Karimov was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying.

Tallinn- Herman Simm, a former senior Estonian intelligence official was found guilty of treason charges on Wednesday and sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison.

Simm was also ordered to pay a fine of more than 2 million dollars for selling state secrets to Russia over more than a decade.

Harju County Court in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, released its verdict after a trial held in strict secrecy.