WASHINGTON - The number of American companies featured on the annual Fortune 500 list of top global companies fell to its lowest level, the business magazine said, while more Chinese firms made an appearance.

Signalling the effects of the devastating financial crisis on the United States economy, a non-US firm topped the list for the first time in over a decade, with Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell coming in first.

The firm brought in US$15 billion (S$21.8 billion) more in sales than second-place oil rival Exxon Mobil of the United States.

China saw its fortunes rise across the board with a Chinese firm - oil giant Sinopec - appearing in the top 10 for the first time, the magazine reported on Wednesday.

Overall, China had an unprecedented total of 37 companies featured on the list, with nine new entries and the others climbing in the rankings.

But the number of US firms in the top 500 has fallen to 140, the lowest since Fortune began compiling the list in 1995.

No. 1 Shell had US$458 billion in revenue, and Exxon Mobil had US$442.8 billion. US company Wal-Mart Stores came in third with $405.6 billion.

In fourth place was British oil giant BP (US$367 billion), followed by US oil firm Chevron (US$263 billion), French oil firm Total (US$234.6 billion), US oil firm ConocoPhillips (US$230.7 billion), Dutch insurance conglomerate ING Group (US$226.5 billion), Sinopec (US$207.8 billion) and Japan's Toyota Motor (US$204 billion).

Seven of the top ten were oil firms and only one was an automobile company.

Of the US firms to disappear from the list entirely were household names slammed by the global economic crisis - among them AIG, Freddie Mac and Lehman Brothers, while the rising US firms were Google, Amazon and Nike.

In announcing the rankings, Fortune noted a US National Intelligence Council report called Global Trends 2025 that said if the current trends continue "by 2025 China will have the world's second largest economy."

According to a 2008 study by the US research organization Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, China's economy will overtake that of the United States by 2035 and be twice its size by mid-century.

The Fortune ranking is based only on revenues, while other rankings use profits or other factors.