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By Benet Koleka
TIRANA, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Albania signed two deals worth
more than two billion euros ($2.53 billion) on Tuesday with
Italy, boosting power supply to both and helping Tirana's
aspirations for closer ties with the European Union.
The gas and wind power deals will produce electricity for
domestic use and also for export to Italy, to ease Albania's own
shortages and help Italy cope with a power deficit.
Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Albania's Prime
Minister Sali Berisha watched as the deals were signed in what
marks a revival of cooperation between the two countries,
neighbours across the Adriatic sea.
"These Italian investments in Albania amount to two billion
euros, but I told my friend that Italian investments worth three
billion euros will soon come to life," Berisha said.
"In my vision, Albania should become a small energy
superpower in the Balkans," Berisha said, speaking in Italian
throughout the news conference to honour his "great friend."
Since demand boomed after communism, Albania has suffered
chronic power shortages because its hydroelectric power plants
have not produced enough to supply growing demand.
The two power deals -- with Falcione Group for a
regassification plant and with the Moncada Group for a wind farm
-- are part of efforts to cut Albania's dependance on rainfall.
Berisha has also tried to woo Italian companies to build
nuclear power and coal-fired plants in Albania.
EU HOPES
Critics say Italy, Albania's biggest trading partner and
investor, persuaded Albania to allow polluting power projects
that Italians do not want in exchange for backing Tirana's NATO
and EU aspirations.
As Berlusconi arrived, some protestors outside held up signs
saying "Albania Not for Sale" and others drew a parallel between
the dates of Albania's occupation by fascist Italy and
Berlusconi's visit.
Berlusconi told Italian businesmen that the Albanian
government would help cut red tape to help them and hoped
Berisha would win elections next year.
"Italy will be proud and honoured to be the first advocate
to back Albania when it decides to present its admission bid to
the European Union," Berlusconi said.
Berisha returned to power in 2005 promising to supply
Albanians with uninterrupted power. He has failed to keep his
promise although his government's plans have attracted numerous
foreign investors keen to build power projects.
Italy's Falcione Group will build a Liquefied Natural Gas
(LNG) terminal with a capacity of eight billion cubic metres a
year (bcm/yr) that could later grow to 12 billion. Italy's
consumption is 83 bcm a year, Falcione said.
The LNG, imported on tankers, would be converted to gas and
via a new pipeline pumped from Levan in southern Albania to
Brindisi in southern Italy in a one-billion euro investment.
Italy's Moncada Construzioni plans to build a 1.2 billion
euro wind farm, billed by some as the biggest in Europe, south
of the western Albanian city of Vlore.
In addition to the power deals, the two countries agreed to
an 160-million-euro agreement for an Italian cement plant and a
joint agreement for development cooperation.
(Reporting by Benet Koleka, editing by Adam Tanner)
