Tentatively on the menu for discussions are France's aim to sell the Saudi Navy three FREMM frigates, helicopters for the security forces and high-speed train equipment for the 450 kilometre (275 mile) Haramain railway to link the western cities of Mecca, Jeddah and Medina.

Also pending is a Saudi-French pact on sharing nuclear technology, which Paris hopes will pave the way for France to help develop nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia as its energy demand soars.

The oil giant has embarked on a five-year, 400 billion dollar (267 billion euro) plan to recycle petrodollars into infrastructure, hospitals, schools and other civil works, as well as the defence sector.

The prospect has politicians and industrialists beating a path to Riyadh from the world over.

French exports to Saudi Arabia have soared in recent years, hitting 4.1 billion dollars last year, triple the level of 2003.

But France was still only eighth as a seller to the kingdom, and its market share fell from 4.1 percent in 2000 to 3.5 percent last year,according to Banque Saudi Fransi, a local unit of the Credit Agricole group.

Heavy competition has come from both traditional partners like the United States and Britain, and especially from newcomers like South Korea and China, which have leveraged their huge imports of Saudi oil into major construction deals.

Still, French companies have scored big in recent years.

In December 2007 Airbus signed a deal to sell 22 A320s to Saudi Airlines. The Franco-German-Swiss defence conglomerate EADS, Airbus's parent, won a project in July to build a high-tech security fence on 9,000 kilometres (5,600 miles) of the country's border, reportedly worth about two billion euros (2.97 billion dollars).