Dubai, June 23: Saudi Arabia's billionaire prince Al-Waleed bin Talal said on Monday he has forged a partnership with a Lebanese businessman to open a Planet Hollywood restaurant in Beirut.

A statement from the prince's office in the Saudi capital Riyadh said he has concluded a partnership agreement with Lebanese businessman Khalid Ali Hammoud to "develop and operate a Planet Hollywood restaurant in Beirut".It said Centre Point, the company controlling the project, is 49 per cent owned by the prince and 51 per cent by Hammoud. The restaurant is due to open in 1998 in Beirut, which already has a Planet Hollywood merchandise store, it said.

"I am pleased to participate in the company's first Middle Eastern operation and have great faith in Lebanon's ability to gain back its position as a leisure, cultural and commercial centre," the prince said in the statement.

The prince and Planet Hollywood International Inc in April formed a strategic pact in which the prince would develop up to 34 Planet Hollywood restaurant-merchandise units in 23 states.

Prince al-Waleed also bought one per cent of Planet Hollywood's common outstanding stock from the company.

Initially the prince said he planned to open Planet Hollywood units in Brussels, Athens, Cairo, Lisbon, Istanbul and Budapest and to take an interest in the Beirut unit.

The prince, a nephew of Saudi King Fahd, has a huge international portfolio of investments worth billions of dollars ranging from hotels, theme parks, banks, real estate, computers and airlines.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.