Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said today the goverment has still not decided on a two-year-old proposal to buy Boeing fighter jets.

But he but stressed defence spending would not be cut despite recent moves to shelve mega projects.

"With regard to the Boeing proposal, we have not made any final decision," Najib, who is also defence minister, told reporters.

The government under new Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi last month postponed a multi-billion-dollar rail deal and indicated more such mega projects may have to make way for smaller development projects.

But Najib said, "We are comfortable with the level of defence spending."

"There is a quite a number of projects still in the pipeline," he said, noting that many contracts have been signed in the past year and delivery of the big-ticket items such as aircraft, submarines and tanks would stretch until 2010.

Major arms spree

The government two years ago said it intended to buy F/A-18F fighter jets from US aircraft maker Boeing Co. as part of a military upgrading programme which was revived after it was derailed by the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

The Pentagon at the time reportedly notified the US Congress of a possible sale to Malaysia of 18 of the fighters as part of a deal that could be worth nearly RM5.7 billion but Malaysia has said negotiations were on-going.

If purchased, the F/A-18F, used as a carrier-borne fighter by the US Navy, will join the Russian-made MiG-29N, US-made FA-18/D and the British-made Hawks in Malaysia's fighter aircraft fleet.

Malaysia last year embarked on a major arms spree, agreeing to buy Russian fighter jets for RM3.4 billion, French submarines for RM3.7 billion, British and Russian missile systems for RM1.4 billion and Polish attack tanks worth RM1.4 billion. - AFP