CAIRO: Orascom Development Holding said on Sunday it had agreed with the Turkish government to build low- and middle-income housing in Turkey.

Orascom did not give details of the project in a statement on Egypt s stock exchange website, but Egyptian daily Al-Mal said it would develop a 7.5 million square meter plot in Ankara and a 5.5 million square meter project in Istanbul.

Revenue from the project could be between $800 million and $900 million, the paper said, citing Chief Executive Samih Sawiris, without giving a timeframe.

Orascom could not immediately be reached for comment.

Sawiris told Reuters in May, 2008 he was looking to build budget housing towns outside of Egypt to diversify the company s revenue.

Budget housing would account for 10 percent of the company s revenue by 2011, up from almost nothing in 2008, he said at the time. -Reuters