1.   A military agreement with France involving the sale of fighter aircraft had been officially announced in January, and a further bilateral defence pact had been reported in June.

2.   French Defence Minister Francois Leotard paid a lightning visit to the Emirates on Wednesday and signed a defence pact, the details of which were not disclosed.

3.   France is the main arms supplier of the UAE, which is also tied to a defence pact with the United States.

4.   Gulf Arab leaders at a Manama summit last December signed a joint defence pact which commits the GCC countries to defend any member state against an outside threat.

5.   He also took aim at a proposed US-Israeli common defence pact.

6.   He said Britain was committed to the protection of the UAE and that the two countries had been involved in talks over a possible defence pact.

7.   A former military governor of Niger State, Gwadabe recently also served on detachment under a defence pact as chief of staff of the armed forces in Gambia.

8.   Both Kuwait and Bahrain are linked by defence pacts to the United States.

9.   But after coming to power, Erbakan softened his stand and his government even signed a defence industry cooperation pact with Israel.

10.   But Kuwait has also signed defence pacts with France and Britain, the other two main coalition partners, both of whom compete with one another over arms contracts.