Deputy chairman Guo Boxiong met Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, with the Russian security chief saying ahead of the formal meeting that military cooperation was "developing vigorously" with China, Interfax reported.

Ivanov said the meeting "should be a building block for the future years and even decades."

China with India is a principal customer for Russian arms, but most of the contracts until now have concerned aircraft, boats, submarines and munitions.

China in 2002 accounted for more than 2.5 billion dollars (about two billion euros) worth of orders, more than half of Russia's export contracts signed that year, totaling 4.8 billion dollars.

Russian-Chinese defense cooperation gained momentum in the 1990s after Western nations imposed an embargo following the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Cooperation was cemented in 2000 at a summit meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and then Chinese president Jiang Zemin.

In December, Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan visited Russia as part of Beijing's efforts to increase transfers of Russian military technology and reduce arms deliveries from Russia.

WAR.WIRE