US giant Boeing and Europe's Airbus Industrie are vying for dominance of Asia's aviation industry as the sector emerges from the turbulence triggered by the September 11 terror attacks.

China has emerged as a key battleground with the restructuring of its civil aviation authority, while Japan is another major market, industry players at last month's Asian Aerospace 2002 conference and exhibition in Singapore said.

Deals worth nearly $3.2 billion were signed during the event, and although no contracts were announced by Boeing and Airbus both said they were looking at the long-term market.

"We have very good reason to be optimistic for the sector in the next few months," Singapore's DBS Vickers Securities said in a forecast of the region's aviation industry.

"It is pretty clear that abundant potential upside remains as airlines report their FY01 (fiscal year 2001) results and start to recover in 2002."