The crews of Malaysia's first submarines are already training in France ahead of the vessels' delivery in three years, a naval defence group said today.

European firm DCNS is due to deliver two diesel-powered Scorpene submarines to the southeast Asian nation by 2010. No financial details of the contract were given.

"We are providing the full training of the submariners," DCNS senior vice president for sales and marketing, Alain Fougeron, told AFP on the sidelines of the IMDEX Asia maritime defence show.

"We are providing a very deep training programme because they are creating a new submarine force and this is difficult because submarines are very specific armaments. We are training all the officers and crew in France."

DCNS said it hopes Malaysia would make a decision on whether to expand its contract to include maintenance and support after the submarines are delivered.

"We think it's time for the navy to decide what kind of maintenance they want, or which part of the support will be sub-contracted," he said.

"As far as the maintenance and support of the ships are concerned, we are prepared to support the navy."

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is also defence minister, has been embroiled in a controversy over the purchase of the two submarines.

Last month, the Defence Ministry denied it paid RM540 million in commission as part of the submarine deal to Abdul Razak Baginda, a confidant of Najib. Abdul Razak is currently in prison awaiting a high-profile murder trial.

Other Asian countries too

India is the other Asian country which has signed a contract for the Scorpene submarines, Fougeron said.

It has signed a deal for six Scorpenes under a transfer technology scheme in which the vessels will be built in India under DCNS supervision.

Malaysia's neighbour Singapore has four Challenger class submarines in its fleet and is to acquire two more by 2010.

Another neighbour, Indonesia, has two German submarines from the 1970s and plans to acquire four Russian Kilo class submarines and two Amur class, according to figures released by IMDEX Asia's organisers.

They said navies in the Asia-Pacific are expected to spend US$108 billion to boost submarine and other maritime defences over the next 10 years.

Countries in the region, home to vital shipping lanes, are expected to acquire a total of 841 vessels by 2016, 83 of which will be submarines, the show's organisers said.

But Pietre Lindahl, an analyst with US-based naval consultancy AMI International, said the region, in general, was not going through an arms race.