ALGERIA: NEW GAS PIPELINE TO ITALY BY 2009 SAYS PRESIDENT

Algiers, 14 Nov. (AKI) - Algeria and Italy will be connected by a gas pipeline to be built by 2009, president Abdelaziz Bouteflika told Italy's leading paper Corriere della Sera in an interview published Tuesday, on the day Italian premier Romano Prodi started a two-day visit to the North African country. "A delegation of Sonatrach (Algeria's state energy company) will go to Italy by the end of the year to finalize accords for the start of construction work on the gas pipeline which will need to be ready by 2009," the Algerian president told Corriere.

Bouteflika also said Algeria "is expecting the intensification of contacts with small and medium-sized Italian companies."

However the president told Corriere he didn't think an accord on the pipeline would be signed during Prodi's visit.

Italy is the second main exporter to Algeria after France. Italy for its part imports 30 percent of its gas from Algeria.