MOSCOW, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Russia will sell 40 multipurpose Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jets to India under a 200-million-U.S.-dollar contract to be inked this fall, a Russian aircraft company chief said Friday.

    "We hope to sign a contract on the delivery of 40 Su-30MKI fighters to India this September," Interfax news agency quoted Oleg Demchenko, president of the Irkut cooperation, as saying.

    The deal forms part of a wider agreement to produce 140 Su-30MKI jets in India, Demchenko said on the sidelines of an international air show near Moscow.

    He added that the first 20 fighters will be assembled and tested in Russia. The next 15 will be assembled in Russia, but information was not available about where they will be tested. It also remains unknown where the final five jets of this autumn's deal will be produced and test flown.

    Irkut will start production of the first four fighters in early2008, and experts estimated the deal's value at some 200 million U.S. dollars, Interfax said.

    Russia, in recent years, has become India's top supplier of arms, ranging from tanks and aircraft to warships.