MINISTER : MILY HARDWARE PROCUREMENT TO TAKE TIME

Jakarta, June 18 (ANTARA) - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said procurement of military hardware could not be done immediately.

She said here on Wednesday that "there was no single cycle called urgent because seeking approval for arms purchases took time, especially for administrative processes".

The minister admitted that the process was long because sometimes it was difficult to find creditors prepared to finance the purchases. So it was not always about the budget, she added.

She said what was clear was that the budget for the military would be raised and the House Budget Committee had already approved it. "Indeed there will be a raise in the defense budget," she said.

She said that budget problems must not be used to reduce safety.

Professionally, she said there was no reason to reduce safety because of budget problems.

All factions in the House of Representatives approved in a budget committee meeting on Tuesday a proposal to increase the defense budget for 2010.

"We raised the defense budget from Rp33 trillion in 2009 to Rp36.5 trillion in 2010," a budget committee member, Abdullah Azwar Anas, said after the meeting.

Azwar Anas said the defense budget in spite of the raise was still below the budget for education.