Beijing ? Airbus signed contracts today to sell 160 commercial passenger jets to China in a deal worth around $14.8 billion, the company said.

The orders include 110 A320 planes and 50 of the slightly larger A330 planes, Airbus officials said in Beijing, where they were accompanying French President Nicolas Sarkozy on his first state visit to the Asian trading giant.

Airbus and Chinese partners this summer officially signed an agreement to open a final assembly line in the Chinese city of Tianjian to produce A320s.