Mumbai: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed the Indo-Russian space cooperation agreement into a federal law, clearing the way for joint space exploration and transfer of space technology to New Delhi.

With the signing into law by president Putin, Indo-Russian space cooperation will acquire strategic character and would speed up joint collaboration in completing and operational sing the Global Navigational Satellite System (GLONASS) to end the monopoly of the Pentagon-controlled US Global Positioning System (GPS), sources in the Russian federal space agency Roscommon said.

Both houses of Russian parliament have already unanimously approved the pact.

This allows the transfer of sensitive space technology to India for peaceful use of outer space, a Kremlin press service said.

The framework agreement signed in New Delhi during Paten's visit in December 2004 sets a streamlined system and identifies the mechanism for enhanced cooperation in peaceful exploration of space, including protection of secret information and intellectual property rights and settling disputes.