Dubai: US companies are growing more aggressive in targeting Middle East markets, using Dubai as a platform to expand across the region.

From energy to entertainment, several big American firms have announced plans this year to launch their operations in the UAE.

"Business is booming in the Arab world, and US companies want to be part of the action," said David Hamod, president of the National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC).

While US foreign policy may be unpopular in the region, its products are a different story, market observers say.

In the most publicised case of an American business expanding its presence in the Middle East, oil services firm Halliburton has moved its corporate headquarters to Dubai to be close to the oil-producing region. It also wants to list on an Arab stock exchange, its chief executive Dave Lesar has said. The firm, headed by US vice-president Dick Cheney between 1995 and 2000, made the move despite criticism from US lawmakers who feared American job losses.

It is not just oil that is luring US businesses to this part of the world.

Dubai's ambitions to become a major tourist destination have caught the fancy of top Hollywood icons.

Universal Studios, part of media and entertainment giant NBC Universal, has signed a deal for a huge Dh8 billion theme park being developed in Dubailand by Dubai Holding unit Tatweer.

Theme parks

Similarly, Dubai-based Al Ahli Group will develop two theme parks, costing Dh3.67 billion each, in partnership with Nickelodeon, the American kids TV network, and Marvel Entertainment, the company that licenses comic characters like Spiderman.

Eckart Woertz, an econ-omist with Gulf Research Centre, said US firms are following their counterparts from other countries in taking advantage of Dubai's changed business environment.

Delta Air Lines, which stopped flying to Dubai following a fall in travel following the September 11 terror attacks in the US, has re-established a service between Atlanta and the emirate. It wants to connect with several Arab cities later.

Tony Charaf, Delta's senior vice-president for technical operations, expressed a kind of optimism that pervades most US firms. "We are talking about two different worlds [between 2001 and now]," he said.

According to US Ambassador Michele Sison, there are more than 750 US companies physically present in the UAE and many of them use the UAE as a platform to serve the entire region.

There are about 28,000 American citizens living in the UAE.

The growing US business presence in Arab countries may help US grab more share of merchandise imported into the region.

Hamod believes if the US dollar remains weak against other currencies, US companies will stay "very competitive in the Arab world."

According to the NUSACC, sales of American merchandise to the Arab world will rise to $45 billion this year from $35 billion last year.

America's problems with Iraq and Arab public anger about Washington's policies are not seen as a major obstacle to doing business in the region.

"Arab traders and investors typically like to do business with American companies, regardless of US government policies, because America offers many of the world's best products and services," insists Hamod.

Woertz said US firms may be concerned about the effect of the country's bad image on business "but they cannot do much about high politics."