ZHUKOVSKY (Moscow Region), August 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Defense Ministry has decided to resume production of one of the world's largest cargo planes, the An-124 Ruslan (Condor), the country's Air Force chief said on Thursday.

Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin told reporters at the MAKS-2009 air show outside Moscow that the aircraft would be used both for commercial domestic flights and for carrying NATO troops to Iraq.

The An-124 was designed by the Antonov Design Bureau in 1982, and was produced in Kiev and Ulyanovsk until 1995. The plane has a maximum payload of 150 metric tons with a flight range of around 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles).

The cargo jet is the world's third largest after the An-225 and the Airbus A380F.

Russia and Ukraine reached a preliminary agreement to resume production of the An-124 in April 2008.