NEW DELHI: Agni III is ready for launch, awaiting a green signal from the political leadership, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief M Natarajan announced on Friday.

The most ambitious surface-to-surface missile has a 3,000 km intercontinental reach and is capable of carrying a one-tonne nuclear payload.

"All technical parameters for the launch of the missile have been completed. We are ready for the launch," he told reporters on the concluding day of the 4th Defexpo.

The announcement was significant. Though DRDO had claimed readiness to launch Agni III a year-and-a-half back, no trials were undertaken apparently keeping in view the international opinion.

To a barrage of queries on the repeated slippage and time over-runs on a number of key DRDO projects like main-battle tank (MBT) 'Arjun' and 'Tejas' light combat aircraft programme, Natarajan, while admitting that these programmes were running far behind schedule, said that country's defence scientist were working to check these factors.

"The defence scientists are conscious that there have been time over-runs on some of the projects," he said assuring that emphasis now was being laid on keeping time factor in all the programmes.