WASHINGTON, March 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. topped the Fortune 500 list for the third year in a row with sales of almost 259 billion US dollars.

    Fortune's annual ranking, to be published in the magazine's April 5 edition, is based on the companies' sales figures as reported in financial statements for 2003.

    Exxon Mobil Corp., which posted 213 billion dollars in revenue and registered a jump of 17 percent, frogged past General Motors Corp. into the No. 2 spot.

    In terms of profits, however, Exxon Mobil Corp. was first with 21.5 billion dollars in earnings. Wal-Mart, which has the lower profit margins of the retailing industry, had 9.05 billion dollars in earnings.

    With revenues of 196 billion dollars and 164 billion dollars, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. came in third and fourth respectively. General Electric Co. remained at the fifth place with revenue of 134 billion dollars. Both Ford Motor and General Electric held their spots from 2002.

    Chevron Texaco Corp. moved up a spot to No. 6, while ConocoPhillips jumped five spots to No. 7. Citigroup Inc. was eighth, followed by International Business Machines Corp. and American International Group, Inc.

    As a group, the 500 companies bounced back from two years of profit declines, posting combined earnings of almost 446 billion dollars on sales totaling 7.5 trillion dollars. Enditem