Iran will soon unveil a domestically-made air defence system with at least the same capability as Russia's S-300 anti-aircraft hardware, an Iranian air force commander was quoted as saying on Monday.

Last month, Russia's state arms trader declined to say whether it would go ahead with the sale of S-300 to Iran.

'In the near future, a new locally-made air defence system will be unveiled by the country's experts and scientists which is as powerful as the S-300 missile defence system, or even stronger,' Heshmatollah Kassiri told the official IRNA news agency.

The possible sale of the S-300, which could protect Iran's nuclear facilities against air strikes, is a sensitive issue in Russia's relations with the United States and Israel, which have pressed Moscow not to proceed with the deal.

Earlier, the semi-official Fars News Agency, citing senior air force official Aziz Nasirzadeh, said Iran has successfully tested a radar-evading aircraft.

The prototype of a radar-evading aircraft named Swordfish had been test-flown, he said. 'The prototype of this aircraft ... completed all radar evading characteristics considered by us,' he said. 'We are evaluating the data from the test flight and it will go into production after completing additional tests.' - Reuters