International firms vie for Bahrain power plant-MEED

DUBAI, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Bahrain has prequalified 13 international and regional firms to build a water desalination and power plant, the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) said.

The Addur plant will have capacity of at least 500 MW of power by 2010, increasing to as much as 2,000 MW the following year, the London-based magazine reported on its Web site on Wednesday.

It did not say where it got the information.

The prequalified firms include the UK's International Power (IPR.L), Japan's Sumitomo Corp (8053.T), Korea Electric Power Corp (015760.KS), India's Reliance Energy Ltd RLEN.BO, France's Suez (LYOE.PA) and Abu Dhabi Energy Company TAQA.AD (Taqa).

Demand for water and electricity in Bahrain is rising as a construction boom sweeps the region, fuelled by oil income.

(Writing by John Irish; Editing by Neil Fullick)