Moscow - The Russian army will fire more than 160,000 officers from 2009 to 2012 as part of sweeping military reforms, chief of the military's General Staff told news agency Interfax on Thursday.

The army propose to resettle the discharged officers in Russia's Far East and Siberia, General Nikolai Makarov said.

"For officers, fired from the army, the government is working on a programme for their employment and housing in regions that are sharply interested in attracting labour hands," Makarov was quoted as saying.

Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov is spearheading an overhaul of the country's armed force which crumbled to Third World standards with the end of the Cold War.

Last month, he proposed halving the senior officer corps, which now makes up about 30 per cent of the army to move toward Western-style army brigades that are more agile, with rapid deploy units.

"Our army is today like an egg - swollen in the middle. We have more colonels and lieutenant colonels than junior officers," he said announcing some details of the reform last month. (dpa)