Bangkok - Thailand's Defence Ministry on Thursday approved the air force's plan to buy six more Grippen fighters next fiscal year, completing a squadron of the Swedish-made jets.

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said the procurement, to be spaced over over five years, would be allocated from the Air Force's budget and not burden government spending, reported The Nation online news.

The Thai military has been enjoying steadily increasing budgets for arms purchases and other expenditures since staging its latest coup on September 19, 2006.

Over the past three budget years, the allocation for defence has reportedly doubled from 85 billion baht (2.4 billion dollars) in fiscal year 2006 (ending September 30), to
167 billion baht (4.8 billion dollars) in 2009.

The budget allocation for internal security also shot up from 77 billion baht (2.2 billion) to 114 billion (3.26 billion) during the same period.

Thailand's defence budget had been on a steady decline between 1992 to 2006, as the military was forced to withdraw from politics following the "May incident" of 1992, when hundreds of anti-military protestors were arrested, shot or went missing on the streets of Bangkok, greatly tarnishing the army's reputation as the defenders of the nation. (dpa)