Kangaroo corpses lay scattered by the roadsides while wombats that survived the wildfire's onslaught emerged from their underground burrows to find bl

India - South Asia's biggest airshow opened here Wednesday with firms from 25 countries showcasing their latest hardware in a chase for multibillion-dollar contracts with the Indian military. Despite the global economic downturn, nearly 600 armament and aerospace companies -- half of them from overseas -- are taking part in this year's Aero India event in Bangalore.

Regional rival Pakistan has not been invited to the five-day event but China is participating for the first time, said India's Defence Production Secretary Pradeep Kumar.Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours have soared in the wake of last November's attacks in Mumbai, which India blames on a Pakistan-based Islamist group.

Despite the deepening global slowdown, India's million-plus military says it cannot cut defence spending and plans to hand out contracts worth 30 billion dollars in the next three to four years.The defence budget accounts for 2.5 percent of GDP and India has imported military hardware worth 28 billion dollars since 2000.

"There is no question of scaling down our defence expenditure... or compromising with our acquisition programmes despite the economic recession," said Defence Minister A.K. Antony."India has emerged as an attractive market and a key outsourcing hub for global aerospace firms due to low-cost, skilled engineers, good organisations, software and technology," Antony added.India's state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd said it had won a contract to sell locally built advanced light helicopters to Ecuador."We will be selling five helicopters to Ecuador," a spokesman said, declining to specify the size of the deal.