Moscow, Oct 17 (IANS): Russia's defence industry should diversify into manufacturing civilian products in order to be financially stable, President Vladimir Putin said.

"In addition to the main work and creating groundwork for new generation equipment, defence industry organisations are faced with large-scale tasks to increase the production of civilian and high-tech products, which are in demand and competitive both in our country and on world markets," Putin said on Wednesday at a meeting on a financial recovery program for defence industry organisations, Xinhua news agency reported..

He said that a broad field for the sale of such products included medical, construction and road equipment, telecommunication systems and equipment for processing waste and garbage.

Putin said that experts estimated the demand for such products at around 6.2 trillion rubles (around US $97 billion), most of which should be met by domestic manufacturers.