Egypt's Orascom Telecom, the fourth-largest Arab mobile operator by market value, has been put up for sale, a move which may trigger a bidding war from Europe's top telephone groups, the Sunday Times reported.

Orascom's chief executive Naguib Sawiris has appointed a team of investment bankers to study options for the group including an auction which could value the company at about $17 billion including debt, the paper added.

Informal discussion over the future of Orascom have already been held with Deutsche Telekom, while other possible buyers include Britain's Vodafone, Spain's Telefonica and France Telecom, it added.

An Orascom Telecom official declined to comment on the report. - Reuters