Qatari Diar Real Estate & Investment Co will invest $660 million in a luxury coastal resort in Morocco.

The resort, near the northern Moroccan city of Tangier, will comprise hotels, holiday homes and a golf course near.

Nasser Al Ansari, chief executive of the state-owned company, told a news conference on Thursday the al Houara Resort-Tangier would span 234 hectares of prime Atlantic coastal land and would be fully developed by 2011.

The resort will comprise more than 2,700 hotel beds and over 700 residential villas and apartments, Ansari said, providing 2,500 permanent jobs as well as 4,500 indirect jobs in the region.

"We hope to have more investments opportunities in Morocco and soon will launch a tourism project in Assila in the north of Morocco," Ansari said, adding the firm was also eyeing opportunities in Morocco's Agadir and Marrakesh.

Diar is one of the vehicles used by the government of Qatar, which has the world's third largest gas reserves, to invest windfall revenues from energy exports.

Qatari Diar has launched more than 18 projects across the Arab world from Morocco to Oman. - Reuters