Vodafone Egypt  is competing against other Egyptian telecoms firms and some financial institutions for internet service provider Orascom Telecom's LinkDotNet, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Orascom Telecom chairman Naguib Sawiris named other bidders as Telecom Egypt and Mobinil, which is part owned by Orascom, the daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.

Sawiris did not name the financial institutions but was quoted as saying Orascom's internet unit would be sold "to the highest bidder."

"If Mobinil wins this (competition) that would be an indication of Orascom Telecom continuing (to be a shareholder) in (Mobinil) and its desire to maintain (Mobinil) as the premier and biggest mobile firm in Egypt," Sawiris added.

Mobinil is at the centre of a ownership row between its two main shareholders, Orascom Telecom and France Telecom.

Sawiris, speaking at a Mobinil event with a France Telecom executive, also repeated earlier comments that Mobinil's operations were not being affected by the dispute, another daily, al-Mal, reported.

The two rivals took the case to an arbitration court, which ruled that Orascom should sell France Telecom its stake in a holding company that owns 51 percent of Mobinil.

The deal did not go through because Orascom and Egypt's regulator said the ruling also obliged France Telecom to bid for the remaining shares in Mobinil at an equivalent price per share.

France Telecom disputes this and the regulator has since rejected two of the French firm's offers. The two firms have differed over strategy for Mobinil, with Orascom keen to invest more heavily than the French firm wished, analysts say.

France Telecom has said the two firms initially disagreed over Mobinil's budget and expenditure, marketing strategy and start up of 3G services.-Reuters