Nizhny Novogord (Russia), Aug 14 (RIA Novosti) Production of MiG-35 multirole fighters offered for sale to India cannot start before 2013 or 2014, a Russian aircraft maker has said.

'We have begun testing the MiG-35 fighter for the Indian tender,' Alexander Karezin, general director of the Sokol company based in Nizhny Novgorod, said Thursday.

Russia's MiG-35 Fulcrum-F, an export version of the MiG-29M OVT (Fulcrum F), is a highly manoeuvrable air superiority fighter, which won high acclaim during the Le Bourget air show in France last year.

Six major aircraft makers -- Lockheed and Boeing from the US, Russia's MiG, which is part of the UAC, France's Dassault, Sweden's Saab and the EADS consortium of British, German, Spanish and Italian companies -- are in contention to win the $10 billion contract for 126 light fighters to be supplied to the Indian Air Force (IAF).