Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said the move was meant to "ensure availability of adequate funds."

"This decision has been taken in view of the fact that the process of defence procurement often extends to over three years and hence there is a need for committed availability of adequate funds," the finance minister said.

The interim vote-on-account does not project annual military spending as it is a temporary measure to run the government until elections are concluded and a new administration takes charge.

India had offered a standstill defence budget for the fiscal year to March, keeping its military spending below three percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) at around 14 billion dollars.

The interim budget comes less than a month after India signed a 1.5 billion dollar contract to buy a refurbished Soviet-era aircraft carrier from Russia.

In September, New Delhi cleared the purchase of 66 British Aerospace Hawk jet trainers for 1.7 billion dollars and a month later clinched a deal with Israel for three Phalcon airborne early warning radar systems worth one billion dollars.

India is also in talks to build six French-designed Scorpene submarines in contracts with Paris estimated at around two billion euros (2.1 billion dollars).

In the past two years, Russia has supplied 300 of its latest T-90 battle tanks and a fleet of Sukhoi-30 fighter jets to India in separate deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

WAR.WIRE