He made the remarks at an Algerian-German business meeting held to coincide with a visit to the north African country this week by German President Horst Koehler, the paper said.

The cable's route would take it across the Mediterranean to the island of Sardinia, mainland Italy, Switzerland and Germany.

The project would be carried out in partnership with a consortium of investors including Algerian state energy giant Sonatrach, which is a shareholder in NEAL, and would depend on final approval from both governments, he said.

NEAL, the main vehicle for OPEC member Algeria's alternative energy strategy, is owned 45 percent by Sonatrach, 45 percent by gas utility Sonelgaz and 10 percent by private agro-industrial firm Semouleries Industrielles de la Mitidja.

Africa's second-largest country, Algeria is 4-1/2 times the size of France and most of its 33 million population live on the northern coastal strip. Its desert south is baked by the sun.

For decades an important gas and oil exporter to Europe, Algeria started planning in recent years to add solar to its portfolio of energy exports to Europe.

El Watan reported Hasni as saying the power for the project would initially come from hybrid solar-gas plants but longer term would eventually come from solar-only ventures.

NEAL, in partnership with Spain's Abener Energia Spa, starts construction next year of a 250 million euro hybrid solar-gas plant at Hassi R'Mel in central M'Zab province with a capacity of 150 MW due to come on stream in late 2009.

The plant will be the first of a series of combined-cycle hybrid plants that NEAL aims should have capacity of 500 MW or 5 percent of national generating capacity, by 2010.

As solar technology improves, Hasni plans to establish pure solar generation plants without the need for gas and gradually expand solar power's capacity.