BERLIN, Nov. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Germany's outgoing government headed by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is to sell Israel two Dolphin-class submarines at a steeply discounted price, local media reported on Monday.

    The two submarines will be built in the Baltic Sea coastal city of Kiel for a total of one billion euros (1.17 billion US dollars), news magazines Der Spiegel and Focus reported.

    The new submarines will be equipped with fuel cell engines allowing them to remain under water for weeks at a time.

    The move to sell the vessels at one third of their normal cost was agreed in a secret meeting of the German Federal Security Council. The reports said Germany had long resisted supplying the new submarines at a reduced price.

    Outgoing Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, a member of the once-pacifist Green Party, agreed to the sale, but he will not sign the agreement himself on Monday. Instead he is sending a deputy to sign it.

    Germany had already given two Dolphin submarines to the Israeli navy after the Gulf War in the early 1990s. A third one was later bought by Israel at a greatly reduced price.

    Schroeder's government had long been hesitant about selling additional submarines to Israel, mindful that the Jewish country might arm them with nuclear weapons and further threaten Middle East stability.

    The sale is the second major arms sale that the outgoing government has completed in its final month in office. Two weeks ago, it agreed to sell 298 surplus Leopard 2 battle tanks to Turkey.

    On Tuesday, Leader of Christian Democratic Union Angela Merkelwill be installed by the parliament. Enditem