China steps up anti-carrier missile tests: US commander

China is stepping up efforts to deploy a "carrier-killer" missile system, the commander of the US Pacific Command has said in an interview with a Japanese newspaper, published Tuesday.

"The anti-ship ballistic missile system in China has undergone extensive testing," Admiral Robert Willard told the Asahi Shimbun in Honolulu, according to a transcript of the interview on its website.

Willard said China appeared to have achieved "initial operational capability" but it would take "several more years" before fully deploying the system.

China Working to Counter US Naval Power in the Pacific

China Working to Counter US Naval Power in the Pacific

A Chinese made surface-to-air missile is displayed near a Ferris wheel in Shanghai, China

China's growing military capabilities are raising concerns in the United States and among its neighbors.

The U.S. Department of Defense says China is developing a ballistic missile that can hit aircraft carriers more than 1,500 kilometers away.

That program is in addition to the country's already extensive missile defense system, which includes more than one thousand missiles pointed at Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory.

France Arms export orders worth 8.16 Billion euros

Paris - France booked 2009 arms export orders worth 8.16 billion euros ($11.31 billion), a 22 percent rise over the previous year, showing a climb out of the lows hit in the middle of the last decade, Defense Ministry spokesman Laurent Teisseire said.

In 2008, France reported orders worth 6.58 billion euros; in 2007, 5.5 billion euros.

A second year of improvement in export performance reversed the "very negative slope" hit in the middle of the last decade when foreign sales hit a low of just over 3 billion euros, he said.With the latest figures, France held its rank as the fourth-largest arms exporter with a 7.2 percent share of the world market, and better reflected the country's industrial capacity, Teisseire told a press conference in a joint presentation with the Foreign Ministry of the government's annual report to parliament on weapon exports.