RIYADH -- More than 250 firms will take part in the first Pan-Arab industrial fair due to open next month in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah, a top Arab League official said here Sunday.

The fair, to be held from September first to sixth, will exhibit a variety of Arab industrial products with the goal of promoting inter-Arab trade, said Arab League official Abdul Rahman al-Suhaibani in a statement.

"The exhibition represents a strategic step toward activating economic and investment cooperation and trade between Arab countries," Suhaibani said.

The volume of inter-Arab exports and imports reached $33.5 billion in 2000 compared to $27.7 billion in the previous year, AFP quoted Suhaibani as saying.