Vladimir Putin says all businesses should be ready to switch to war production at any moment

Vladimir Putin told a gathering of military leaders in Sochi that all 'large-scale enterprises' in the country must be ready to meet war-time needs at any moment. Photo / AP

Vladimir Putin has said that all Russian businesses must be ready to meet war-time needs at any moment.

The Russian President made the remarks at a meeting of world military chiefs in Sochi on Wednesday, according to the Daily Mail.

It comes a day after he said Russia should aim to overtake the West in terms of military technology because: "If we want to win, we have to be better."

Speaking on Wednesday, Putin added: "The ability of our economy to increase military production and services at a given time is one of the most important aspects of military security.

"To this end, all strategic, and simply large-scale enterprise should be ready, regardless of ownership."

Putin's remarks were reported by The Independent.

Russian military spending largely declined throughout the Nineties, but starting in 2000 the country has massively increased its defence budget.

The amount it spent on its armed forces more than doubled between the turn of the millennium and 2004, and has shot up even faster in recent years.

It is now the world's third largest military spender, behind the US and China.

The Kremlin now boasts regiments of cutting-edge tanks, a next-generation armament of nuclear missiles and will soon have supersonic bombers.

Also on Wednesday the government of Syria agreed to take part in a summit to discuss what will happen to the country once the war against ISIS is over.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani had agreed to the summit, set to place before United Nations-backed talks in Geneva next week.

The congress would "gather representatives of different political parties, internal and external opposition" to discuss "the parameters of the future state," he said.

The Syrian foreign ministry official said Syria has "always" supported "any political action that respects its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and helps put an end to the shedding of Syrian blood".

ISIS has been reduced to just a few pockets of resistance in cities in the east of the country, located along the Euphrates River.

Now Syria is largely split between Russian-back government forces, which control the majority of territory, and the western-backed SDF which controls parts of the north and east.

A key sticking point is likely to be the future of Bashar al-Assad, with Russia demanding that he stay in power but the West refusing to accept this.