Speaking at a national exhibition titled "Russia and Uzbekistan: Strategic Partnership" in Tashkent on Wednesday, the official said a memorandum on the Tashkent Aircraft Company’s accession to the UAC would be signed at the 9th meeting of the inter-governmental commission on economic cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan.

"All documents are prepared and initialed, and the Uzbek side has done its share of work. The Russian side is experiencing some technical delay but the memorandum sets a concrete deadline for signing the agreement of accession before the end of 2007," the official said.

The Uzbek government has decided to exchange 50 percent plus one share of the aircraft plant for a package of UAC shares. "The size of this package will be determined after the current valuation of the plant, and the UAC has to prepare a business plan determining the workload for the plant by March 2008," the official said.

In Soviet times, Chkalov Aircraft Company was the only plant that made wide-bodied aircraft. It was created in 1932 in Khimki outside of Moscow and transferred to Tashkent in 1941.

The UAC plans to build 400 aircraft within four years, which will require "serious financial investments" in the modernisation of serial aircraft plants, Itar-Tass reported.

UAC head Alexei Fyodorov said earlier, "It is planned to use one billion U.S. dollars for this aim till 2015."

The planes, to be produced by the corporation, will vary by their size and the number of seats. They will include long-range, medium-range and regional planes, specifically, Il-96, Il-76, Tu-204, Tu-214, Tu-334, An-148 and Superjet-100, produced by the Sukhoi Firm.

"We realise we shall have to stand tough competition with foreign producers, but we do not want to lose the Russian market, and we shall do our best for the Russian air companies to have at their disposal reliable and comfortable air liners," Fyodorov stressed.