The British Ministry of Defence and the Saudi Government have confirmed the deal, reported to be worth $11 billion.

Saudi reports say the price for the planes is the same as that paid by the British Royal Air Force.

Late last year Britain's Serious Fraud Office dropped an inquiry into a previous similar deal, which was examining whether senior Saudis received massive bribes.

The British Government said then the inquiry was dropped on national security grounds.

But reports claim the Saudi Government threatened to pull out of the current deal if the inquiry into the previous contract was continued.

The deal will mean thousands of jobs in both England and Saudi Arabia.

Cleaning up the air of the Chinese capital has risen to be one of the biggest hurdles facing organisers in the year remaining until the Games open on August 8, 2008.

Australia's Olympic Committee (AOC) president John Coates believes the high levels of air pollution makes for a less than ideal preparation for the athletes.

"It's probably the biggest issue for us and our team," he said.

"The head coaches have gathered enough information to certainly confirm that we would not be recommending a long period in China before the Games.

"That only is going to increase the possibility of respiratory or gastro illness ... "

Similar to the build-up to the Seoul Games in 1988, Mr Coates said the athletes would do their final preparations at home before arriving at the Olympic village.

"You won't be seeing too many of our athletes until four or five days before their competition," he said.

Furthermore, a wave of health scandals over the last couple of months has focused international attention on the poor, and sometimes dangerous quality of Chinese food.

Mr Coates said the Australians would be taking precautions.

"The IOC pays very special attention to the quality of the food in the Olympic village, we don't expect that will be a problem," he said.

"But we will still be advising our athletes to eat in the village, not in the local food stalls if they go downtown after training or competition, be careful of bottled water and take every precaution."

Beijing organisers have confirmed that they would take a large proportion of the city's three million cars off the road this month to test the effect on pollution and ease congestion.

-Reuters

-abc.com.au

Gore cited the mobile phone industry as an example of a business that does not need to burn fossil fuels such as oil and coal.

"There are ways to leap-frog the old, dirty technologies," said Gore, who was speaking at the Global Brand Forum in Singapore.

China, like other developing nations, is worried that plans to cut carbon emissions would cripple its economic development.

But Gore said the Chinese government needed to be more aggressive in fighting global warming because the country's chronic water shortage is tied to climate change.

"China has a great deal at risk," he said.

"The water crisis is very closely related to the climate crisis."

Millions of people in China, which is on course to overtake the United States as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, have no access to clean drinking water.

Chinese scientists said last month that rising temperatures were draining wetlands at the head of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, China's two longest rivers, choking their flow and reducing water supplies to hundreds of millions of people.

While top Chinese leaders have "expressed themselves forcefully" on global warming, the comments do not "necessarily lead to immediate changes in the region," Gore said.

A three-day vehicle ban across Baghdad will take effect from Wednesday night, the Iraqi military says, as authorities seek to protect Shi'ite pilgrims gathering for a major religious festival.

Baghdad's chief military spokesman, Brigadier-General Qassim Moussawi, said it would start at 10 pm (0400 AEST) on Wednesday and end at 5 am (1100 AEST) on Saturday.

A curfew would, however, take effect from Tuesday night in the northern district of Kadhimiya, where thousands of pilgrims are expected to converge on the shrine of Imam Musa Kadhim in the next few days.

Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Abdul Karim Khalaf earlier announced the Baghdad-wide vehicle ban would begin on Tuesday. He later said that was simply a suggestion.

Nearly 1,000 Shi'ite pilgrims were killed in a stampede during the ceremony in 2005 when a crowd heading towards the shrine was panicked by rumours of a suicide bomber.

It was the greatest loss of Iraqi life in a single incident since the US-led invasion of 2003.

-AAP-ninemsn.com.au

The United Nations said the situation in the capital Dili remained volatile, with groups of youths attacking security personnel with rocks and blocking roads with piles of burning tyres.

In the central city of Baucau, security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at mobs setting government buildings on fire.

Witnesses said at least three buildings were on fire.

UN spokeswoman Allison Cooper said there had been reports of gunshots in Dili.

"They are not throwing rocks at each other, they are throwing rocks as those people trying to contain the violence, the UN, ISF (International Stabilisation Force) and PNTL (East Timor National Police)," Ms Cooper said.

"The groups around the IDP (refugee) camps, there would be dozens (of rock throwers), but in other isolated areas, there are just a few youths, two to five.

"It really doesn't look like a systematic, coordinated political revenge attack," she said, adding that it appeared to involve mainly groups of disaffected youths.

She described the violence as sporadic and isolated.

There were no reports of injuries to security personnel.

The unrest follows President Jose Ramos Horta's announcement on Monday that Gusmao would lead the next government, a coalition of major parties, after five weeks of negotiations following the recent parliamentary elections.