Tenaga Nasional will start laying submarine cables under the busy Malacca Strait before the end of the year to export power to Indonesia by 2008, a report said today.

The New Straits Times , citing industry experts, said the project would cost about RM1 billion.

Tenaga chief executive Che Khalib Mohamad Noh said a feasibility study had been completed.

"We are in the midst of short-listing financial and legal advisers," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Tenaga is seeking ways to boost energy sales and to cut its debt of about RM30.5 billion. It already exports energy to Thailand.

The undersea cables would connect Malacca and Sumatra, a distance of 46 kilometres.

The cost of the project would be shared between Tenaga and Perusahaan Listrik Negara of Indonesia, the newspaper said.