PARIS, April 8 (Reuters) - LVMH (LVMH.PA) has signed a partnership with Orascom Development Holdings (ODHN.S) to build two luxury resorts in the Middle East as part of a strategy to expand in the luxury hotel sector.

Louis Vuitton

The French luxury group said on Thursday 8 April that the two resorts, one located off Oman and the other on the Nile, would open in 2012.

Their construction would be mostly financed by Orascom, while LVMH would run them and take a percentage of sales and profits, it said.

LVMH created a unit called LVMH Hotel Management to run the resorts, to be called Cheval Blanc after the group's Michelin-starred hotel in the Alpine resort of Courchevel.

The French group said it believed in the long-term growth potential of the luxury hotel sector and the resorts would offer new selling points for its brands.

The first Cheval Blanc resort would sit on a desert island in the Indian Ocean off Oman and consist of 32 villas, complete with private beach and swimming pool.

The Sultanate of Oman would finance about 30 percent of the project and Orascom the remaining 70 per cent, a spokeswoman for LVMH said.

The other project would involve the construction of a resort on an island on the Nile, consisting of 40 suites.

"Other projects are currently under study in exceptional destinations," LVMH said in a statement.

LVMH shares were down 2.09 percent at 84.67 euros by 1126 GMT. (Reporting by Astrid Wendlandt and Pascale Denis; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter and Will Waterman)