Pune: India has no reason to worry irrespective of whether United States goes ahead with its plan to sell 'offensive' aircraft such as F-16 to Pakistan as we have our Sukhois to match, Defence Minister George Fernandes said on June 22.

"Firstly, the US has denied the report that they are intending to sell F-16 to Pakistan. This has been denied by US as a 'false story'", Fernandes told reporters on the sidelines of his historic 40 minutes flying sortie on board the IAF frontline SU-30 MKI from the Pune airbase.

"Secondly, even if we assume that they are going to sell it, we need not have any reason to worry about it as we have our own best aircraft," he said.

Most of the armoury of Pakistan is either US made or made in China, hence we have no reason to worry about it as it is a business deal between two countries, he added.

Replying to a question on the growing number of accidents of MiG aircraft, the Defence Minister said, "on the contrary the rate of accidents have come down".

"From the time the MiGs were inducted in the Air Force, there has been accidents, but it is only now that they are being more noticed by the media," he said.

He was particularly critical of the media for dubbing the MiG aircraft as 'flying coffins' and said it is a great injustice to the pilots who are flying these aircraft.

MiG is a high performance machine and to prove that there is nothing wrong with the aircraft, the then Air chief Marshal A Y Tipnis flew the single-seater aircraft hopping from one airbase to another when he had taken over as the Air Chief Marshal, Fernandes said.

Speaking on ways to prevent MiG accidents, he said, "People need to be educated about the problems of birds which causes bird-hit in the aircraft and must be made aware of the importance of keeping the surroundings (of the airports/air bases) clean to prevent birds."

To a question, he said the government of India has not yet taken any decision on the issue of sending of division of the Indian Army to Iraq.

"The issue was discussed in the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) meeting on June 21. We have made our point of view and after examining all the aspects, the decision in this regard will be taken later," Fernandes added.

PTI