Jerusalem: Amidst reports that it was under investigation by India for allegedly trying to bribe to win Defence contracts worth millions of dollars, Israeli artillery major Soltam has said it was not aware of any such probe.

Soltam, whose multi-million dollar deal with India for upgrading the Russian-made 130MM guns to 155MM calibre has run into rough weather, said it was not aware of any inquiry or probe ordered by New Delhi on the firm, the influential Ha'aretz daily reported today (Nov 2, 2004).

The company officials, the paper said, also denied maintaining an agent in India to secure lucrative arms deals.

However, sources in Jerusalem told the paper that Soltam, which is also bidding for India's major artillery deal to purchase 400 upgraded 155MM guns, had maintained close ties with an Indian arms agent, who had been acting on its behalf as a de-facto agent.

Indian media recently reported that the Government had ordered a probe into the failure of the deal to upgrade the Russian 130MM guns. The reports said the Israeli company's efforts had met with major hurdles as Russians had refused to provide it with original blueprints of the gun system.

Israel is involved in major Indian Defence Ministry programmes to upgrade its Russian-supplied armaments, including the Mig-21-Bison programme of the IAF (Indian Air Force) and some other major projects.