Emirates airlines, the Middle East's largest, said the global financial crisis would not curb its expansion drive as it had no problem financing aircraft despite tighter liquidity.

'We have no problem in our aircraft financing,' Emirates chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum told Reuters on the sidelines of a property fair in Dubai.

Emirates has around 58 Airbus A380s on order worth over $18 billion.

It said last month it had raised $265 million in an Islamic financing arrangement to pay for the lease of two new Boeing planes whose delivery brings Emirates' passenger fleet to 111.-Reuters