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Indian defense

minister wants

greater mly budget

NEW DELHI: India's defence minister said on Friday he wanted to raise defence spending to three percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the upcoming federal budget from a current 2.3 percent.

"I have always advocated for an increase in the defence budget allocation of up to three percent of the GDP, but for the past 10 years it was not met," George Fernandes told reporters here. "We need more funds to strengthen our armed forces to meet any external aggression," he said.

India is to unveil its federal budget on February 29. Its military budget for the fiscal year ending March 2000 stood at 10.8 billion dollars, an 11 percent increase over the previous year.ÑAFP