SAO PAULO (AFP) - Brazil is going through with the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France after maker Dassault lopped two billion dollars off their price.

The total deal is worth 10.2 billion dollars, including 6.2 billion dollars for the fighters themselves -- down from a previous figure of 8.2 billion -- and four billion for maintenance over the next three decades, the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported Thursday.

The price cut still makes the Rafale more expensive than two rivals bidding to supply Brazil's air force, the F/A-18 Super Hornet from US group Boeing and the Gripen NG from Sweden's Saab.

The Boeing package was valued at 7.6 billion dollars and the Saab offer at 6.0 billion, according to the newspaper.

The French jet also scored behind the two other contenders in a technical evaluation carried out by the air force, which lobbied hard for the Gripen both with the government and in Brazil's media.

But, Folha de S. Paulo said, Defense Minister Nelson Jobim and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have decided to stick with their preferred option, the Rafale.

The price cut was reportedly decided last Saturday, when Jobim passed through Paris on his way to Israel.

Jobim's office said the minister also had a meeting with Sweden's ambassador to Brazil, Annika Markovic, in Brasilia on Monday this week.

There was no immediate confirmation of the newspaper report.

A Dassault spokesman in Paris said: "We have no comment to make on the article in the Folha de S. Paulo. At this time, the Brazilian government has not announced its choice. We are awaiting this announcement calmly and confidently."

A Brazilian presidential spokesman told AFP that "there is nothing new."

If confirmed, though, the sale would be a big relief to both Dassault and to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Dassault was keen to win the Brazilian tender because it has so far failed to make a single overseas sale of the Rafale. It hopes supplying Brazil's air force will boost its chances with other countries looking to upgrade their militaries, including India.

Sarkozy, meanwhile, has a lot of personal prestige tied up in the deal.

In September 2009, he and Lula jointly announced that Brazil had started negotiations to buy the 36 Rafales even though the tender process had not been closed.

Under pressure from the air force and the two rival manufacturers, Brazil's government stepped away from that pledge and said the competition remained open -- but that the final decision would be a political and strategic one to be made by Lula.

Lula's preference for the Rafale was evident.

Not only would Brazil get access to all the technology involved in the sophisticated jet, but Brazil and France already have a strategic alliance which has seen Brasilia spend 12 billion dollars buying French helicopters and submarines.