New Delhi:
Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin is in Delhi for a 24-hour working visit with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
According to Russian officials, Putin will sign more than a dozen pacts amounting to 10 billion dollars, including an accord to resolve the troubled sale of a refitted Soviet-era aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov.
Other deals include a contract to sell India 29 MiG fighter jets and an agreement to install additional nuclear power units in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where it is already building two reactors.
The sale of the Admiral Gorshkov has been marred by a series of price disputes and delayed deliveries, fuelling concerns in Moscow that India could be tempted to end its dependence on Russian military equipment.
Putin's foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said the new accord would "suit both sides" and help put the dispute behind them.
"We have an enormous interest in India," he told reporters ahead of Putin's arrival in New Delhi.
Russia supplies 70 percent of India's military hardware but in recent years New Delhi has looked to other military suppliers including Israel and the United States.
Manmohan Singh is likely to press for access to Russian nuclear reprocessing technology. The first reactor of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant will be launched this year with Russian help.
India and the US are close to finalizing a pact on reprocessing.
Accompanying Putin are Russian vice-prime ministers Sergei Ivanov and Sergei Sobyanin, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina.
(With agency inputs)