India and South Africa have finalised a historic deal for the sale of hundreds of artillery guns to the Indian army worth millions of dollars, officials said on Friday.
Indian defence ministry officials on the sidelines of an international arms fair here said New Delhi had opted for South Africa's Denel firm to supply 180 self-propelled 155-millimetre artillery pieces and 100 howitzer guns.
"Price negotiations have been completed and we are now just waiting for a telephone call to start the delivery," Denel's marketing executive Hendrik Helberg told AFP.
"We have sold a substantial amount of ammunition to India and now we have finalised this 155-millimetre deal," Helberg said, adding that part of the deal was the transfer of technology so that the guns could in future be manufactured in India.
Indian officials said the final clearance for the artillery deal would have to come from the security cabinet of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
The deal ends a self-imposed moratorium by India on artillery system imports since 1986, when the purchase of Swedish Bofors guns worth 1.33 billion dollars led to charges of bribery that finally toppled a government here.
An Indian court earlier this week, however, cleared the name of then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in the Bofors armament contract scandal.
The officials from India's defence production department said the Denel weapons would have 52-calibre barrels and a range in excess of 40 kilometres (24 miles).
Helberg refused to reveal the cost of the guns, but Indian officials said the weaponry was worth "tens of millions of dollars".
South Africa is also keen to clinch a contract to jointly manufacture with India 400 motorised 155-millimetre guns for export to third countries.
"The contract is in the fairly early stage of negotiations and we will compete when India floats a (global) tender," the official said.
Swedish American SWS Defence, formerly Bofors AB, and Israel's Soltem are also in the race for the high-stakes contract, which is estimated to be worth more than 1.5 billion dollars.
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