Key European manufacturers like Alcatel, Racal Electronics, Marconi and Thomson crowded into the Beijing International Exhibition Center with a host of Chinese companies as well as American companies Agilent Technologies, Tektronix and Teradyne.

But it was the joint Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Israel's ministry of defense (SIBAT) that outclassed all others with its display of advanced surveillance radar systems, models of Rafael and Barak missile systems and the newly developed laser homing anti-tank system (LAHAT).

The Barak is a ship-based anti-missile missile capable of countering anti-ship threats, while the LAHAT is a laser-guided projectile designed to be fired from tank guns.

China has been known to be interested in both anti-missile missile technology and laser-guided weaponry.

"Of course we are interested in developing our cooperation with the Chinese military, we believe there are many areas that we can cooperate in," Noam Zafrir, spokesman for IAI told AFP.

IAI was also hoping to introduce its EHUD air combat and simulator training systems that could help enhance the ongoing integration of China's air force, navy and army into a fighting force capable of "winning a limited war under high tech conditions."

Although the Israeli display carried video footage and photos of a Phalcon advanced warning and control system (AWACS) mounted on a Boeing 767, Zafrir refused to discuss the sensitive ongoing sale to China of the system that is being packaged together with a Russian Ilyushin-76 transport plane.

The United States has pressured Israel to cancel the sale due to fears that it could tip the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait, while the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that it was "very mindful" of US concerns.

"Israel attaches great importance to its strategic links with the United States and maintains a dialogue in this area," the office said.

"Israel does not seek and has not sought to strike a blow at the crucial interests of the United States," it added.

While European and US manufacturers grumbled over export sanctions placed by their governments on sales of sensitive high-tech products to China, they also appeared eager to be in place if and when those sanctions should be lifted.

"We don't expect any sales here, but we are hoping to establish long term cooperation and be in place if and when these sanctions are removed," one European exhibitor said.

The only prominent satellite manufacturer at the exhibition was Alcatel of France which was hoping to interest the Chinese in its range of satellite systems that could be used dually for both military and civilian use.

In its booth the French company Thomson Tubes Electroniques carried a series of brochures on its "traveling-wave tubes," a technology that China is known to be interested in that can be used for military ground-based and missile-based satellite communications.

China's military is seeking to develop its electronic warfare capabilities into a "reconnaissance-strike complex" of highly accurate ballistic and cruise missiles combined with AWACS, over the horizon radar and signal intelligence gathering systems.

Such a system could render highly accurate hundreds of Chinese global positioning satellite-guided DF-15 short-range ballistic missiles and DF-21 terminally-guided long-range cruise missiles.

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