Slovenia's government, currently on an austerity drive, has sharply reduced an order for armoured vehicles from Finnish defence firm Patria, the defence minister said Wednesday.

The 2006 contract has been reduced to just 30 armoured vehicles from the 135 initially agreed in 2006, while the value of the deal has been slashed to 74.5 million euros ($93.9 million) from the original 278 million euros.

"In fact, today is a happy day," Defence Minister Ales Hojs told journalists after his ministry reached an agreement with Patria on Tuesday.

"Our military objectives (within the NATO military alliance) might be a little lower than before but that is understandable considering the financial problems member states have."

The former Yugoslav republic's military will keep the 30 vehicles it has received so far and no more will be delivered, Hojs added.

"The settlement includes a change of the fleet size to 30 Svarun vehicles that have already been delivered and closing down the rest of the project and thus the supply contract," Patria said in a statement.

The contract, signed during Prime Minister Janez Jansa's first term from 2004-8, was part of Slovenia's efforts to modernise its military after joining NATO in 2004, the same year it became a member of the European Union.

The deal has also been dogged by allegations of corruption. Weeks before 2008 parliamentary elections, a Finnish television report alleged that several high-ranking Slovenian officials, including Jansa, had taken bribes from Patria.

Jansa, prime minister for the second time since February, is still on trial over the affair but has dismissed the case and the allegations against him as a farce.

Recent weeks have seen speculation that Slovenia may become the sixth eurozone member to need EU help because of problems with its banks, credit ratings downgrades and bond interest rates touching the danger level of seven percent.

Jansa's centre-right government has announced measures aimed at cutting the country's public deficit to between 3.5 and 4.0 percent of gross domestic product from 6.4 percent in 2011.