Russia may lease India nuclear subs: Medvedev

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday Russia might lease out nuclear-powered submarines to India as part of deepening defense ties.

Medvedev, talking to Indian Television before a visit to India, also said Moscow stood ready to help with the investigation of militant attacks in Mumbai that killed 171 people and with broader questions of fighting terrorism.

India, which is nuclear armed, has blamed the attacks on groups based in neighboring Pakistan, which also has atomic weapons. The two countries have fought three wars since independence from Britain, but appear at pains to avoid any conflict over the Mumbai events.

"We are prepared for cooperation on all fronts with the aim of preventing such terrorist attacks, in the investigation of the recent terrorist attack and the creation of a global defense system against terrorism in the world," Medvedev said, in a transcript of the interview published on the Kremlin Web site.

He spoke of deepening defense industry ties, at a height during the Soviet era.

"We are talking also about cooperation in the sphere of leasing atomic submarines," Medvedev said.

A spokesman for India's defense ministry declined immediate comment.

Russia is one of the world's major arms exporters. It has a fleet of nuclear-powered but conventionally armed submarines besides its strategic nuclear-armed vessels, which are not sold abroad.

Trade between India and Russia -- who are now among the world's biggest emerging market economies -- is set to rise to $7 billion this year from $5 billion in 2007, Medvedev said.

He said Russia and India's growing economic and strategic clout meant that the world needed to take them into account and that they could boost cooperation along with China and Brazil as part of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) grouping.

"Today we cannot even imagine that any of the most important global problems would be considered, for example, without Russia or India," he said.

WEAPONS SALES

Indian media have reported that New Delhi was interested in leasing nuclear submarines including the Nerpa, scene of an accident last month in the Sea of Japan in which 20 people were killed. The Russian military denied reports that the submarine was to be leased to India.

Medvedev said the accident aboard the Nerpa was probably caused by human error and any worries about the safety of Russian submarines were misplaced.

Prosecutors have opened a case against a sailor suspected of triggering the accident by turning on the submarine's fire extinguishing system.

India, along with China, is one of Russia's biggest clients for arms sales but New Delhi has been upset by delays in the delivery of an aircraft carrier.