Sydney, Aug 26, SPA -- Australia will become the first country in the region with long-range cruise missiles, officials announced Thursday. The missiles can hit targets 400 kilometers away. They will be fitted to F/A-18 fighters and P3 Orion maritime surveillance planes by 2007. "Combined with the new air-to-air missiles and upgraded precision-guided bombs, Australia's fighter jets will be the region's most lethal capacity for air combat and strike operations," Defense Minister Robert Hill said. The missiles would have four times the strike range of those now fitted to Defense Force planes. The cost is estimated at 400 million Australian dollars (280 million U.S. dollars). The Labor Party's Kim Beazley, opposition spokesman on defense, said the purchase was likely to draw criticism from neighboring Indonesia. In Jakarta, Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said the government would carefully look into the Australian announcement. "We will be looking at this very carefully and we would like to be enlightened against whom such offensive capability is being directed," Natalegawa told reporters. "We have to ask ourselves against whom these long-range missiles are being directed, especially at a time when many governments are professing concerns at the proliferation of such technology," Natalegawa said. He questioned the deployment of the missiles by "Australia, which has been very pronounced and very forceful in expressing their opposition against missile technology proliferation." --SPA 1435 Local Time 1135 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/195282