Moscow - Yemen plans to purchase more fighter jets among other military hardware from Russia, President Ali Abdullah Salah said in an interview with Vremyna Novosti daily published Thursday.

The Yemeni president made the comments at the end of a three-day visit to Moscow, where he met with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev for talks on military and trade ties as well as piracy off the gulf country's coast.

"These (the MiG-29) are excellent aircraft. We have had them for a long time. Suffice it to say that we are planning to acquire more of these aircraft and probably MiG-35 fighters as well," Saleh was quoted by the paper as saying.

"We are also in talks on the purchase of Russian helicopters and patrol boats," he added.

Near 90 per cent of the weapons and hardware equipping Yemen were bought from the former Soviet Union, and now need repairs and maintenance under a
4-billion-dollar modernization programme.

Moscow is vying with other arms producers to secure military contracts with the oil-rich state. (dpa)