Italian aerospace company Finmeccanica signed a memorandum of understanding with Russian warplane maker Sukhoi on Thursday aimed at buying a stake in a Sukhoi-led regional airliner venture.
Finmeccanica said the deal -- signed by its unit, Alenia Aeronautica, and Sukhoi's civil aviation subsidiary -- also involved the Italian company in helping to market the so-called Russian Regional Jet passenger plane in the West.
"This could lead to the creation of a number of joint ventures," Finmeccanica said in a statement.
Boris Alyoshin, head of the Russian Federal Industry Agency, told reporters in Moscow that Alenia wanted at least 25 percent of the project.
Finmeccanica said in a separate statement that Alenia and another Finmeccanica group company, Aermacchi, would broaden cooperation with two other Russian planemakers, Irkut and its subsidiary Yakovlev.
Sukhoi makes Russia's flagship SU fighter jets and is one of the country's biggest arms exporters.
But marketing its new short- and medium-range airliner is part of Sukhoi's plan to diversify production and make more civil aircraft.
The Russian company, which hopes to start testing the new passenger plane in 2007 and sell up to 800 aircraft over the next two decades, has been developing it jointly with Boeing.
The RRJ project, led by Sukhoi's Civil Aircraft Company, is part of a state plan to revive the domestic civil aviation industry, still haunted by Soviet-era woes.
Alyoshin said that Alenia's interest would be now considered by the Russian government, which controls Sukhoi's shares.
Sukhoi itself directly owns 86.84 percent of the civil aviation unit's shares, according to its web site.
The RRJ family, being developed with Franco-Russian engines, comprises the 98 seat RRJ 95, which will be the first version to be launched, followed by the 78 seat RRJ 75.
Sukhoi has said India's HAL may also be interested in taking part in the jet's development.
As for other Russian deals, Finmeccanica said Alenia and Irkut -- Russia's biggest listed defence company -- would set up a management company in Moscow, owned 51 percent by Alenia and 49 percent by Irkut, to jointly develop engineering projects.
Other deals include joint work on developing new models based on Yakovlev-130 aircraft.
