Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said: We are prepared to transfer high-tech frontier technology to India in a strategic tie-up based on a new pattern of defense cooperation.

Ivanov said Moscow was not planning to sell or lease a Project 941 (Typhoon) ballistic missile submarine to India, Interfax reported.

We are delivering conventional submarines to India and do not rule out their future upgrade. As for nuclear submarines, we fully rule out their delivery, Ivanov told reporters in the Indian capital.

The visiting minister said that the time had come to change the pattern of defense cooperation to make it transcend buyer-seller relationship and take it to levels of frontier technology.

India and Russia will also hold joint military exercises involving their elite paratroopers next year, Ivanov said.

Ivanov is in India to lay the groundwork for the Russian President Vladimir Putin's three-day visit that begins Friday. Putin is expected to sign a series of bilateral agreements with Indian officials to bolster the bilateral ties between Moscow and New Delhi.

Officials of the two nations are trying to resolve Moscow's concerns on the protection of intellectual property rights and New Delhi's concerns over a time-bound delivery schedule for the weapons and spares.

Russia wants India to ink an IPR agreement to ensure that advanced weapon systems developed jointly are not handed over to third countries without mutual agreement.

India is not averse to signing such an agreements but wants Russia to stick to its delivery schedules of contracted weapon systems and an uninterrupted supply of spares and life-term product support.

Huge multi-million contracts signed with Russia in recent years like the ones for the Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, the T-90S main battle tanks and the Talwar class stealth frigates have been dogged by several delays, The Times of India reported.

India is seeking to include stiff penalty clauses in all such weapon procurement contracts.

Although India has been defense shopping in Israel and the United States following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia continues to be the backbone of Indian defense supplies.

Nearly three-fourths of Indian military's hardware is of Soviet make, and India is hard pressed for the required spare parts. India's ageing fleet of MiG fighter jets is dogged by a series of fatal accidents, often blamed on poor spares.

Putin's visit is aimed to iron out a series of differences and bolster the bilateral ties between the two former allies of the Cold War era.

Besides defense pacts, Putin is expected to sign agreements concerning the banking and information technology sectors.

Meanwhile, the Russian cabinet on Thursday approved a bilateral accord for visa-free travel with India for diplomatic and official passport holders.

The new visa agreement would benefit the large Indian contingent involved in defense projects in Russia.

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