South Korea to finalise jet deal

South Korea's arms procurement agency plans to receive a final bid next week for a $7.4 billion deal to buy 60 fighter jets, the largest arms import contract in the nation's history, an official said Monday.

"The final bidding will be held between Aug 13 and 16, except for the Aug 15 Liberation Day holiday," an official at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration's spokesman office said.

Three combat planes, including Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth jet, Boeing's F-15 Silent Eagle and the Eurofighter Tranche 3 Typhoon of the European Aerospace Defence and Space Company (EADS), have been competing for the contract, Xinhua reported.

All the three aerospace giants have failed in the previous bidding attempts as prices higher than the budget approved by the parliament were quoted.