The two helicopters were unloaded from an Antonov carrier airplane which landed around noon at Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusumah airbase in East Jakarta.

Brigadier General Arifin who heads the army's aviation office, said that the two helicopters will be stationed in Semarang, Central Java.

"These Mi35s are (purchased) in the framework of enhancing the capabilities of the army and will be stationed ... in Semarang," Arifin told journalists.

Arifin said that the army has also sent a total of 26 people, including eight pilots, to Russia to earn to fly and maintain the helicopters.

A delegation headed by Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri visited Moscow in April and bought four Sukhoi fighter planes and the two helicopters under a 191 million dollar deal that included the trade of Indonesian commodities and a down payment from the national food agency Bulog

The fighter planes have already been delivered.

The deal has sparked political controversy and the parliament is investigating the deal, saying it did not follow proper procedures.

Armed forces chief General Endriartono Sutarto said last month that Indonesia would keep looking for new arms suppliers to get around Western restrictions on military sales.

The air force currently has US and British aircraft but has been hard hit by a US arms embargo imposed in 1999, with only about 40 percent of its planes able to fly.

Washington refuses to lift the embargo until the country comes clean on its military's backing of militia violence in East Timor in 1999.

WAR.WIRE