In a deal signed last June, Fransabank and Kuwait's AREF Investment Group will each control a 20 percent stake in Capital Bank Sudan with the remaining shares owned by Kuwaiti and Egyptian investors. AREF is part-owned by Kuwait Finance House, the only Islamic bank operating in Kuwait.

"This is our first time in Islamic banking," Bteish said. "The expertise for this is coming from our partners in Kuwait and the banking expertise is coming from Fransabank."

Bteish said the bank will invest in Sudan's "productive sector" but did not give further details. He said the bank's shareholders will meet in November to discuss specific investment projects. The bank will open with a branch in Khartoum and may expand to other cities and offer retail and commercial banking, Bteish said.

With a power-sharing agreement in place aimed at ending Africa's longest war, Sudan's oil-fueled economy is luring Gulf investors hoping to cash in on a postwar recovery.

"Sudan is offering huge potential with the return of peace," Bteish said.

With $70 billion in assets - or more than three times the country's GDP - Lebanese banks are rushing to enter new markets. BLOM, Lebanon's largest bank, is bidding to take over Misr Romanian, a mid-sized Egyptian bank. Byblos Bank announced last week that it is seeking to buy a majority stake in a small Algerian bank.

Bteish also said Fransabank is in the process of opening subsidiaries in Syria and Algeria.

Fransabank will own a 68 percent share of Fransabank Algeria, which will begin corporate and retail banking in the spring of 2006. The Lebanese-owned container shipping giant CMA-CGM has a 25 percent stake in the new bank.

"We got authorization from the Central Bank in Algeria last week and expect to start in April or May," Bteish said. "We will start in Algiers and in the next few months open branches in two or three of the main cities."

Algeria's three state-owned banks - which the government says that it intends to privatize - control over 50 percent of the market.

"They're opening up the market in Algeria and there's a lot of potential there," Bteish later added.