AFP/Cairo


France on Monday signed its first export contract for Rafale fighter jets, with Egypt agreeing to buy 24 of the warplanes.
Eric Trappier, chief executive officer of France's Dassault Aviation, signed the multi-billion-euro contract at the presidential palace in Cairo in the presence of Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Paris hopes the 5.2 billion euro ($5.9 billion) deal for 24 Rafale fighters to be delivered later this year -- which comes as Cairo launched air strikes against jihadists in Libya -- will prompt others to snap up its premier combat jet.
For Egypt, the agreement is a show of support for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who overthrew his Islamist predecessor in 2013 and wants to break a US monopoly over Egypt's arms supplies.
The beheadings of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya, which prompted the air strikes earlier Monday, was an "additional reason for security" for Cairo, Le Drian said before arriving.
Sisi "has a strategic need to ensure the security of the Suez canal, through which a large part of global trade passes," he said.
"That is the main reason for the urgency to have both naval and aerial capabilities to ensure this security," he added.
The sale comes as welcome news to cash-strapped France, which is even diverting three jets away from its own airforce for the delivery.
French President Francois Hollande said the agreement -- clinched in only three months of negotiations -- provided Cairo with "a quality aircraft" and was important for Egypt "taking into account the threats existing around the country".
With Libya wracked by instability to the west and the threat from militants linked to the Islamic State group to the east, Egypt plays a key role in providing stability in a troubled region, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday.
France is hoping the deal will act as a catalyst to unblock hoped-for sales to other countries.
Eric Trappier, chief executive of Dassault Aviation, which manufactures the jet, has said he was "very confident" that three years of exclusive talks with India on the sale of 126 Rafale jets worth 12 billion euros would soon result in a deal.
He said talks were slow as Delhi wanted some of the jets manufactured at home in a bid to boost manufacturing.