ANKARA -- Turkey and Russia agreed Tuesday that Moscow repay $480 million of outstanding debt mainly through a transfer of military equipment to Turkey.


Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets and Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Murat Karayalcin signed a protocol in Ankara agreeing that payment, frozen in 1991, be resumed on credit extended to Moscow at the time of the Soviet Union.


"The repayment of debt to Turkish Eximbank, totalling $480 million...has been tied to a new payment plan," Eximbank general manager Ersoy Volkan said in a statement. "The resolution of the problem will give new impetus to bilateral trade."


According to the new protocol, Russia will pay $90 million in cash this year, followed by two payments of $50 million in 1995 and 1996. The remaining $290 million will be transferred in the form of military equipment.


Eximbank extended $555 million to the former Soviet Union, which repaid a portion before its break-up.


Russia took on responsibility for repaying Soviet debts when the superpower fell apart in 1991. Struggling to repay $80 billion of debts to Western creditors, it has won a 1994 debt rescheduling deal with the Paris club of creditor states.


"Talks on the repayment have been stalled since 1991, when Russia stopped repaying all its foreign debt," Volkan said.


Karayalcin said the agreement signaled a new era in bilateral relations.


"The agreement has opened the way for Turko-Russian trade to develop," Aykon Dogan, Turkish state minister responsible for the economy, told Anatolian news agency.


Soskovets and Karayalcin also signed protocols concerning science, culture, tourism, energy, construction and industry.


Soskovetsarrived in Ankara on Monday after three days of meeting businessmen in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya. He leaves for Istanbul later Tuesday to meet members of a Turkish-Russian business council.