After hour-long talks with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee, Russian Defence Minister Sergie Ivanov told reporters here yesterday that his country was "prepared to transfer high-tech frontier technology to India in a strategic tie-up based on new pattern of defence cooperation".

He said time has come to change the traditional buyer-seller relationship between India and Russia and change the pattern of defence cooperation.

Ivanov's remarks came even as senior defence officials of the two countries held talks for the third successive day yesterday to iron out differences on supply of major weapon systems and streamline the delivery system of critical spares to existing defence hardwards Russia has supplied to India. A major chunk of Indian army, navy and air force's hardware is of Soviet-make up.

Since the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991, there has been persistent complain from India about delay in supply of spares from Russia.

Ivanov, who arrived here on November 30 and stays on for Putin's three-day visit, emphasized the need for reaching an intellectual property rights agreement with India saying it would provide the basis for development of more high-tech weapon systems jointly and to guarantee against third countries staking claim to technology developed by the two countries together.

India and Russia have jointly developed Brahmos missile with capability of being launched from surface, undersea and air. Russia has offered India equity stake in development of fifth generation of fighter aircraft.