An Indian cabinet committee gave its approval on Wednesday to a long-delayed deal to buy 36 fighter jets from France's Dassault.

A senior Indian Defence Ministry official said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet committee on security had given its green light to the multi-billion dollar Rafale jet purchase at a meeting in New Delhi and the defence ministers of both France and India would ink the agreement on Friday.

"The deal was approved at the meeting in the evening," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.