MOSCOW, Dec. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on Wednesday denied reported plans to overhaul the country's armed forces.

    "We do not plan to abolish military districts, fleets or the armed forces' central command centers either today or in the future," Ivanov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

    The defense chief welcomed plans to set up regional command centers.

    "Steps to create regional command centers need to take account of the burden on the federal budget and avoid creating a mess in organizational and personnel matters," he said.

    Ivanov's comments came as responses to recent Russian media reports that the military is planning a major overhaul, which willreplace military districts with regional command centers and abandon central commander centers.

    Ivanov said the military wants the defense budget to be split evenly between maintaining operations of the military and developing the military before 2011. By 2017, 70 percent of the defense budget should be spent on developing the military and 30 percent on maintaining its operations, he said. Enditem