Russia is not willing to sell its top-of-the-line Su-35 fighter-bomber jets to neighboring China, a top official said Wednesday.


Russia sells military hardware to China, and recently delivered to Beijing a number of Su-27s, an earlier generation of fighters.


But China and Russia remain wary of one another and that appeared to be one of the reasons behind Moscow's decision.


"The delivery of Russian Su-35 fighters to China is now out of the question,'" Gennady Yanpolsky, deputy chairman of the State Committee for Defense Industries, told Itar-Tass.


He said Russia was "very careful" about selling weapons abroad and needed to review how such sales might affect Russian security.


Yanpolsky was responding to reports that China had allocated $5 billion in 1994 to purchase Russian military equipment, including the Su-35 fighter plane.


He said Russia was presently offering only the Su-27 and Su-30 models for sale.


The updated Su-35 is still being developed and is "mostly for demonstration purposes," Yanpolsky said.


Rosvoorouzhenie, the Russian state arms company, boasts that the Su-35 is superior to its main American rival, the F-15 fighter jet.