MOSCOW - A RUSSIAN MiG-29 fighter jet crashed in Siberia on Friday killing the pilot and prompting the air force to suspend other flights by the Soviet-designed plane, officials said, quoted by Russian news agencies.

The MiG-29 crashed in the Chita district of Zabaykalsky region, some 4,750km east of Moscow, the Emergency Situations Ministry said, quoted by Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies.

'There are no victims and is no destruction on the ground. A commission of defence ministry and air force officials has flown to the scene,' RIA Novosti quoted an air force statement as saying.

The statement said flights by Russia's MiG-29s had been temporarily suspended pending investigation of what was thought to be a technical fault.

Such incidents are relatively common in Russia and a MiG-29 from the same air field in the Chita area crashed in October.

First produced in the 1980s, MiG-29s have been exported through much of the world, notably being used by India's air force and by Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War. -- AFP