The arms deals have quietly been under discussion for months despite US disappointment over Saudi Arabia’s failure to support the Iraqi government and to bring that country’s Sunni Muslims into the reconciliation process.

The US administration’s plans will be announced in advance of trips this week to the Middle East by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates, and are expected to be on their agenda in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The administration has a notional list of arms to sell to the Gulf states, but there are no final agreements on quantities and specific models, US officials said.

State Department and Pentagon officials started briefing key members of Congress about their intentions over the past week, US officials said. The initial reception has been positive, said officials involved in those briefings. They acknowledged, however, that some parts of the deal are supported more than others. Arms sales to Gulf countries have often been controversial.

The administration hopes to provide a full rundown this fall for congressional approval.

“We want to convince Congress to continue our tradition of military sales to all six” states, the senior administration official said. “We’ve been helping Gulf Arabs for years, and that needs to continue.”

Sunni regimes in the Gulf region have felt particularly vulnerable since the election of a pro-Iranian Shiite government in neighbouring Iraq last year. “There’s a sense here and in the region of the need to build up defences against Iranian encroachment,” said a US official familiar with the deals.

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