China to unveil major order for its jets-executive

SHANGHAI Oct 31 (Reuters) - China will announce a major foreign order for its self-developed regional jet ARJ21 next week valued at roughly 5 billion yuan ($731 million), an industry executive said on Friday.

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (CACC), which developed ARJ21, will sign the deal with a U.S. firm during the Zhuhai airshow in south China, the executive close to the Chinese firm told Reuters.

The executive, who asked not to be identified, did not disclose the size of the order. But China Daily, an official English-language daily paper, cited another domestic paper as saying the order would total 25 jets.

In March, GE Commercial Aviation Services, General Electric's (GE.N) aircraft leasing arm, signed a preliminary agreement to buy 5 ARJ21 jets with an option to buy 20 more.

The Chinese industry executive declined to say if GE Commercial was the buyer of the 25 ARJ21 jets.

CACC was incorporated earlier this year after the merger of China's two state aircraft makers AVIC I and AVIC II.

Orders for the ARJ21 jet, unveiled last December and due for commercial deliveries from the third quarter of 2009, have already exceeded 100, mostly from domestic carriers.

General Electric and Parker Hannifin Corp (PH.N) are among companies which supply parts for the ARJ21 jet. ($1=6.838 Yuan) (Reporting by Fang Yan, Editing by Jacqueline Wong)