France Telecom still sees Africa as a lucrative frontier market despite the global financial crisis, a company official said on Tuesday.

The company's executive vice president for the Middle East and Africa, Marc Rennard, said the financial squeeze may make life difficult next year but he was confident of healthy demand.

"The growth in Africa will remain high despite the (global) economic crisis," he told Reuters in an interview.

"It will perhaps be more difficult in 2009, but the growth is there because the demand is there," Rennard said.

France Telecom has said it would concentrate on acquisition opportunities in emerging markets in Asia and Africa in order to expand its global presence.

Africa is one of the world's fastest growing telecoms regions, with about 235 million people already using cell phones in sub-Sahara alone, and operators scrambling to connect an estimated 500 million potential customers.

Canada's Nortel announced on Tuesday it planned to open an office in Lagos to meet rising demand in West and Central Africa.

A consortium led by France Telecom bought a 51 percent stake in Telkom Kenya, the country's landline monopoly, late in 2007 for $390 million. It has since spent more than 5 billion shillings upgrading the company's infrastructure.

Rennard said France Telecom wanted to build on that purchase to expand in Africa, where mobile and fixed-line phones were rare until a few years ago.

Besides Africa, Rennard said France Telecom was eyeing Asia, mainly Vietnam. It is seeking to buy shares in MobiFone, which is owned by Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications (VNPT).

Source:Reuters