The French claim that Saudi Arabia has selected their Leclerc tank and plans to buy or build 355 of them. The French claim that the Saudis are now considering options to build the tanks in Saudi Arabia. No contract has been signed, but the French are hopeful to see a Saudi signature within a few months. The deal is liable to involve tedious negotiations. The Saudis are demanding that France invest 30% of the value of the contract in projects inside Saudi Arabia (and those projects must involve serious transfers of technology to the Saudis). The Saudis also want the French to buy back the 290 AMX-30s which the Saudis previously bought from France. Those AMX-30s would have little value on the export market except as scrap metal.--Stephen V Cole