A consortium led by Malaysia's Westmont Group has proposed a US$5 billion plan to build gas and power plants in Bangladesh, an official said Monday, in what would be the country's biggest investment by a foreign firm.

The Westmont-led consortium submitted the plan to state-owned petroleum company Petrobangla in which it said it would construct a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant, a power plant and a gas development and distribution network, the senior Petrobangla official.

"We are positive toward their five-billion-dollar proposal," Petrobangla chairman Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told AFP .

All the plants would be set up at Shahbazpur in southern Bhola island where Petrobangla had discovered a gasfield but could not develop it because of a lack of funds, Bhuiyan said.

The proposal by the energy to banking Westmont Group would mark Bangladesh's biggest investment by a foreign company, according to foreign investment board data.

The private UNB news agency, quoting unnamed sources, said Chinese oil and gas giant CNOOC, Sinopec, Malaysian DESA and British Energycorp Group were members of the consortium led by Westmont.

India's Tata Group had earlier submitted a proposal to invest three billion dollars in steel, power generation, fertliser and coal mine projects.

Members' profile

But the government has said it would take a final decision on Tata's proposal after the general elections in January.

Petrobangla has asked Westmont to provide profiles of the members of the consortium and information on how it aims to raise the money, Bhuiyan said.

The government would now examine the proposal "in detail," he added.

Westmont Group is one of the biggest foreign investors in Bangladesh.

The company has investments in barge-mounted power plants in the country.