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©AFP / Mohammed Obaidi

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand

RIYADH (AFP) - The chorus of Pays-Basques singers which greeted Saudi King Abdullah at a Riyadh fair would have been unremarkable elsewhere, but was a whiff of change for the conservative Muslim kingdom.

In Saudi Arabia, where Islamic clerics severely repress public music, film and other modern arts, it represented the wedge of domestic reformers and a key thrust of French diplomacy.

Abdullah visited the French pavilion on the opening night Wednesday of the Janadriyah festival in the desert outside the Saudi capital, the sole outpost of foreign arts at the annual two-week event.

He was welcomed to the pavilion, decked out by mini-Eiffel Towers and French-style cafes, by French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand.

In an address Mitterand praised the king's promotion of traditional Arab culture, adding: "France, also with age-old traditions... shares with your majesty this unique message."

Playing to King Abdullah's perceived desire to open up his ultra-conservative nation to more modern arts and entertainment, France is parlaying its own music, film and museum-heavy culture for closer ties between the two countries.

©AFP / Mohammed Obaidi

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz attends the opening ceremony of the annual Janadriyah Festival of Heritage and Culture

This, the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy hopes as well, will help French businesses grab more of the hundreds of billions of dollars Riyadh is spending on development projects.

Sarkozy himself has pushed hard, visiting Riyadh three times in less than two years to see Abdullah, and sending his ministers on regular visits.

"France is not satisfied with the current level of the relationship," said Antoine Basbous, director of the Arab Countries Observatory in Paris.

"There are two goals. One, good (political) relations which would allow France to become an interlocutor in the region," he said, adding the "second is commercial."

Saudi Arabia is spending about 400 billion dollars in 2008-2013 on scores of huge infrastructure projects, making it a battleground for foreign economic suitors.

But only France is emphasising the culture angle as a way of getting a chunk of the energy and transportation projects which are the lion's share of Riyadh's spending.

The Janadriyah participation, with a number of arts performances scheduled and a normally banned mini-movie theatre inside, is just one of a growing number of Paris-promoted cultural events with the Saudis during 2009-2010.

©AFP / Mohammed Obaidi

Camels are seen at the annual Janadriyah Festival of Heritage and Culture

In early March Paris hosted the week-long "A Look at the Saudi Society" with seminars and lectures at the Senate and the Arab World Institute. It was overseen by influential Mecca province governor Prince Khaled al-Faisal, an arts fan hugely popular with progressive Saudis.

King Abdullah has been invited to inaugurate a Saudi archaeological exhibit at the Louvre in July, and be the foreign guest of honour at the Bastille Day celebrations.

Cleverly, say some, and riskily, others, France is playing to the reformist sentiments of Abdullah, who more through actions than words has appeared to want to overcome the bans on public music, movie theatres, drama and other arts.

The French are the most active among a number of embassies which put on the occasional film, concert or other art activity, almost always in Riyadh's restricted-entry diplomatic quarter.

Even so, it is always an uphill battle.

Last year the French embassy held a modest exhibition of works by Saudi women, an event marred by the inability of several of the artists themselves to gain entry to the diplomatic quarter to attend, due to Islamic restrictions.

Conservatives also nearly succeeded in blocking a long-planned recital by a French soprano put on for women only outside to embassies district.

©AFP / Mohammed Obaidi

France's Frederic Mitterrand (C) poses with countrymen during the Janadriyah Festival of Heritage and Culture

Some Saudis see France as helping to advance Abdullah's unspoken agenda against the religious conservatives, with whom he has to act cautiously.

Mitterand would not comment on that, or the commercial hopes of the French thrust.

"Of course I would be pleased if Saudi Arabia built a French Metro," he told AFP.

"But I would like maybe next year to bring an orchestra to Riyadh, to play some Mozart. Or maybe Beethoven. That would be nice."