Italian builders have presented 20 offers for a 1,700 km motorway across Libya, the biggest project of its kind in Africa, Italy's infrastructure minister Altero Matteoli said on Tuesday.

The project will be financed by Italy as agreed in a friendship treaty signed by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2008.

'We have received 20 requests, all companies are Italian,' Matteoli told a news conference, adding that the motorway 'will be split in three and awarded to three consortiums.'    

'Its value is something more than 5 billion,' he added, without specifying the currency.

The treaty foresees Italy investing $5 billion in Libya over 20 years in infrastructure projects reserved to Italian firms as compensation for colonial misdeeds from 1911-1943.

Italy's biggest builder Impregilo and No.2 Astaldi filed last week for prequalification to bid for the project connecting Tunisia and Egypt as leaders of two consortiums, sources told Reuters on Friday.

The planned four-lane road will stretch from Ras Ajdir, on the border with Tunisia, to Imsaad, close to Egypt, according to a tender document published by the Libyan embassy in Rome earlier in August.

The awarding procedure is expected to start by October 30, the tender says. - Reuters