BAE, Britain's leading defense company, is particularly keen to make a big score in the Persian Gulf, one of the United Kingdom's most strategic arms buyers, after the October collapse of a proposed to merge with European aerospace giant EADS.

Cameron flew first to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the financial and economic powerhouses of the emirates. He reportedly hopes to persuade Abu Dhabi, which controls military procurement for the seven-state federation, to buy 60 Typhoons in a deal likely to be worth $4.8 billion.

The Emirates has long been considering the purchase of up to 60 French Rafale multipurpose jets built by Dassault Aviation to replace its Dassault Mirage-2000s.

In Dubai, Cameron's first stop, he toured the al-Minhad air base with senior emirate officials inspecting air force Typhoons, produced by the Eurofighter consortium, that are there on a training exercise.

But Cameron and his high-powered team were preceded in the gulf by French President Francois Hollande, who was hosted by the Saudis Sunday and pressed the Emirates to buy the Rafale.

Cameron also wants the Saudis to add to the fleet of 72 Typhoons they bought for $8.6 billion in 2009 and are still being delivered. There are reports Riyadh is interested in buying another 48-72 Tranche 3 Typhoons, a deal worth $7.3 billion-$11.2 billion.

However, the Saudis are committed to buying 84 Boeing F-15S fighters and dozens of helicopters from Boeing and Sikorsky Aircraft, a division of United Technologies Corp., for $33.4 billion as part of a massive U.S. arms package to counter Iran.