The deal, said to be the biggest ever was signed between the two countries earlier this week, the daily Kommersant said. The details of the deal, however, were not disclosed.

The Sukhoi Design Bureau has already designed SU-30MKK, with the last `K' standing for Kitai (China in Russian), the paper said, adding that SU-30 for China will be manufactured at aircraft factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

The daily said Beijing was reportedly pressurising Moscow to sell these `state-of-the-art' fighters, said to be best in the world, ever since a 1.8 billion US dollars deal was clinched with India for the sale of 40 SU-30 MKI fighters.

At their summit in 1997, Boris Yeltsin and Jiang Zemin had discussed the sale of SU-30 fighters to Beijing and the Russian president after the talks had announced that they had ``cut the knot of controversy'', thepaper said.