New Delhi, Feb 26 : Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin, presently on an official visit to India, met External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee here last evening.

This meeting is of significance after Russia signed more than 700 million dollars in deals to supply India nuclear reactors with fuel pellets.

Major nuclear powers -- including Russia, European states and the United Sates -- are scrambling to sell primary and ancillary nuclear services to India, which is trying to build new generation capacity to cope with a projected increase in demand for energy.

Russia sees India as an important partner to expand Russian influence in Asia, though Moscow and New Delhi have bickered over delays to the delivery of Russian military hardware.

Reportedly, Russia is keen to double trade with India to ten billion dollars by
2010. Thus strengthen Indo-Russian relations despite trade with India lagging far behind Moscow's economic ties with the European Union and China.

Russia is aiding in the setting up of two 1,000-megawatt reactors at Kudankulam as part of a deal signed in 1988. Later, Russia agreed in 2008 that it intended to build four more reactors at the site.

Russian nuclear reactors cost up to two billion dollars a piece, but India would be expected to get a hefty discount on such a major deal which is viewed as reinforcing India's nuclear cooperation with Russia. (ANI)