The World - News from July 8, 1988

Britain and Saudi Arabia are preparing to sign an arms agreement worth “tens of billions of dollars” that would make Britain the Arab kingdom’s major arms supplier, supplanting the United States, congressional and Reagan Administration officials said. The agreement, which may be announced in London as soon as today, is “a framework of understanding” under which several contracts would be negotiated for planes, ships, other weapons and various construction projects over 10 years. The potential contracts, worth at least $10 billion and perhaps as much as $30 billion, would mark the largest transaction so far in the Middle East arms trade, the officials said.