US retail giant Wal-Mart topped the Fortune Global 500 biggest firms in 2003 for the third straight year,US Fortune magazine reported on Monday.

Revenues of Wal-Mart,the US discount chain,increased by seven percent to 263 billion US dollars last year and its workforce was up by 100,000 to 1.5million.

US firms took half of the top 10--dominated by car makers andoil giants --with Exxon Mobil as the number three,General Motors number five,Ford number six and General Electric number nine.

British oil company BP edged out Exxon Mobil for the first timeto grab second place in the list.

Wal-Mart's profits jumped by 13percent to 9.1billion dollars last year.However,it was not the largest in the Fortune Global 500.

Texan oil giant Exxon Mobil was the most profitable with net profit of 21.5 billion dollars.Citigroup was second most profitable with 17.9billion dollars.

The Fortune Global 500companies reported revenues of 14.9 trillion dollars last year --higher than the 14.1 trillion dollars at the height of the tech boom in 2000--as well as record profits of 731.2 billion dollars.

Over the past decade,the number of American companies in the Global 500 rose from 151 to 189 while Japanese companies declined from 149 to 82.Chinese companies rose from three to 15.