France eyes 13 pc of world arms market: Report

PARIS: France is hoping to regain the 13 percent share of the global arms market which it enjoyed a decade ago and which is now held by Britain, Defense Minister Herve Morin said in a newspaper interview.

Morin also told French business daily La Tribune that despite the global financial crisis, France still hopes to secure 7 billion euros worth of arms exports in 2010, compared with 5.5 billion euros last year.

"France, which is the world's fourth-largest exporter of military equipment, is followed closely behind by the Israelis," Morin said in an article to be published on Wednesday.

"We have 6 percent of the world market and want to return to the level of the British, who have a 13 percent market share, which was our situation 10 years ago," Morin said.

As of Sept 30, France had sealed close to 4 billion euros worth of arms export contracts against 2.8 billion euros at the same time a year before.