French owners of mobile operator Orange, France Telecom, hopes to enter the market in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Togo in a bid to expand its African activity bloc.

The operator has identified the countries to enter with regard to proximity to other markets in which Orange is already a prominent mobile provider.

“If we manage to enter Benin, Togo, Burkina (Faso) and Mauritania, for example, that would be very valuable for us. The countries’ proximity to Orange’s existing operations in Mali and Senegal made them more attractive,” Elie Girard, France Telecom head of strategy and development told reporters in London.

However, he noted that no acquisition negotiations are as yet underway, but that expansion in the region is a priority plan for the company.

In addition to the prospective acquisitions, France Telecom is also looking to settle management deals with certain telecoms in Algeria and Libya in efforts to launch on the North African market as well, revealed Girard.

“There are two operators in Libya today and there is a tender for management contracts and we are working hard to get one of those,” Girard disclosed.

“Algeria as a large, underdeveloped market was also strategically interesting, but any progress would be slow,” he noted.

The French telecoms group has set a growth target of reaching a turnover from emerging markets of 7 billion euros ($ 9.3 billion) by 2015- and has been seen aggressively expanding in Africa in particular as part of achieving this target.

The company claims it is well on track to reach its turnover target on deadline, having already purchased operations in Morocco and Tunisia in the past two years, and now plans the current round of acquisitions.

The telecom has also been focusing on emerging markets in the Middle East region, having successfully launched operations in Iraq recently.