Tunis — Turkish Anatolia news agency (AA) Executive Officer Kemal Ozturk announced the opening in Tunis of an office, to ensure coverage of large political, economic, cultural and tourist events and broadcast of an Arab-speaking international news service.

At a news conference held on Wednesday morning in Tunis, Mr. Ozturk pointed out that setting up this new office is part of the agency's opening on the world and its competition with international news agencies.

Founded in 1920, AA, he added, counts 38 correspondents across the world and is endeavouring to reinforce its staff by opening 22 offices in the Arab world before the end of the 2012, two of them in Tunisia and Morocco.

The Tunis office will provide free information to the Tunisian media till the end of the current year before getting to the subscription phase, he said.

In this regard, a co-ordination will be ensured with Tunis Afrique Press (TAP) news agency, especially as Anatolia is a subscribed customer to TAP.

Anatolia, which is endeavouring to ensure the training of a new generation of correspondents, counts 580 reporters and broadcasts 600 news items on a daily basis, he pointed out.