Russia says raising naval spending despite crisis

* Medvedev wants to raise presence of Russian navy

* Spending part of a 'fundamental' refit of armed forces

SINGAPORE, Nov 16 - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promised on Monday to increase naval spending and widen his country's presence in the world's oceans although the global financial crisis is biting into the budget.

The naval spending rise is part of a planned "fundamental refit" of the armed forces between 2011 and 2020 that will replace up to 90 percent of the equipment in some parts of the armed forces, Medvedev said.

Russia has one of the largest navies in the world, including a submarine fleet second only to that of the United States.

The navy has held high-profile exercises in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean in recent years in a bid to reassert itself after the decade of decay that followed the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

"Our task, so that our fleet and our flag appears in various locations, is to invest as many resources as possible in the development of the navy," Medvedev told Russian Pacific Fleet sailors on board a missile cruiser docked in Singapore.

"We have a rearmament programme ... and this programme will continue to grow," said the Kremlin chief, who attended a regional summit in the Asian city-state at the weekend.

Despite a significant increase in Russia's military budget in recent years, its fleet remains plagued by accidents.

On Friday an arms depot run by the navy in the Russian city of Ulyanovsk, about 800 km southeast of Moscow, caught fire killing two people and forcing thousands to flee their homes.

Last year 20 people died during a sea trial of a Russian submarine.

Medvedev promised military budgets would not be cut as a result of the global economic crisis, which has caused a sharp fall in Russian economic growth, putting pressure on the national budget.

"The influence of the crisis on the defence sphere will be minimal," Medvedev told the sailors. (Reporting by Oleg Shchedrov; Writing by Conor Humphries; editing by Tim Pearce)