The Indian government yesterday approved the purchase of three Russian-built warships and multirole missile systems to strengthen its navy, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

"The three frigates will be acquired at a cost of 51.14 billion rupees (1.13 billion dollars)," the defence minister said after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's security committee gave its nod to the deal.

The first ship would be delivered five years after the signing of the contract with its Russian builders while the remaining two would arrive within 12 months of the first delivery, Mukherjee told a news conference in New Delhi.

"The security committee also approved the earmarking of another four billion rupees (88 million dollars) for certain other equipment for these stealth warships," he said, without elaborating.

Highly-placed defence ministry sources told AFP the funds would be used to arm the three new warships with BraHmos cruise missiles which have been jointly built by Russia and India.

The cabinet also gave the green light for the purchase of 28 submarine-launched KLUB land missiles at a cost of 8.4 billion rupees (187 million dollars) for India's Russian-supplied submarines, the defence minister said.

"These missiles would be fitted in six submarines already bought by India," he said, adding that the arming of two of the vessels with the weapons systems would be done in Russia, which accounts for 70 percent of India's military hardware.