European plane maker Airbus and French engineering and utility firms landed deals worth more than $10 billion in Beijing on Thursday as China rolled out the red carpet for President Jacques Chirac.

The deals -- dominated by a record-matching order for 150 single-aisle Airbus jets worth $9.9 billion at list prices -- came at the formal start of a state visit to a country whose rapid growth he said would "change the face of the world."

Chirac was welcomed by Chinese President Hu Jintao and a 21-gun military salute at Tiananmen Square.

The two leaders reviewed a column of troops at the square, festooned with red flags of China and a single French flag, before talks in the cavernous Great Hall of the People.

Chirac's vocal support for an end to the ban earned him tributes in China's official press at the start of his fourth trip as president, which caps a decade of improving ties.

"Europe's arms embargo to China is not in line with current Sino-European relations, and France will continue to push the European Union to lift the ban soon," China's foreign ministry spokesman quoted Chirac as saying in talks with his counterpart.

The talks also focused on the North Korean weapons crisis, with a joint declaration expressing "serious concern" over Pyongyang's October 9 nuclear test, and Iran's nuclear ambitions.  

"Doing nothing would strip us of any influence, credibility or legitimacy," Chirac told students at Beijing University.

The two countries said in a joint statement they were committed to the respect of universal human rights "whilst taking into account specific situations".

Chirac, whose term in office ends next May, was due to meet Premier Wen Jiabao and other top officials later in the day.

AIRBUS-BOEING RACE

Looking relaxed and basking in his status as one of China's strongest Western allies, Chirac handled questions from university students over France's traditional rivalry with the United States and the future of Europe.

He wished Beijing "extraordinary success" for the 2008 Olympics, in a poignant reminder that he failed to clinch the 2012 games which will be staged in London.

In a package of economic and other accords, Airbus agreed to sell 150 of its narrow-bodied A320 jets to China and reached a final deal to make some of the jets in the country.

China, which often maintains a balance between rivals Airbus and Boeing, bought 150 Boeing jets during a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush in November 2005, and another 150 from Airbus during Wen's visit to France a month later.

Airbus, however, hopes to steal a march on its rival on the fast-growing Chinese market by investing in local assembly, even as it faces restructuring at home due to A380 superjumbo delays.

The project calls for Airbus to build its first non-European assembly plant in Tianjin, near Beijing, in order to boost capacity for A320-family narrow-body jets starting from 2009.

"With a big country like China, if you want to be present (commercially), you also need to be present industrially," Airbus chief executive Louis Gallois told reporters.

China also took out options for 20 A350 jets, lending its support to a future mid-sized model that returned to the drawing board this year when airlines preferred Boeing's alternative.

Aside from the Airbus order, the official signing ceremony featured no truly astonishing deals and little progress was reported on French efforts to sell new-generation nuclear power stations to China in competition with U.S. Westinghouse.

French engineering firm Alstom signed a deal from which it will net 300 million euros to supply 500 locomotives as China overhauls its railways, and power giant EDF agreed to help develop nuclear power plants using existing technology.

In Paris, utility Suez announced a one billion euro 30-year water services deal in the city of Changshu.