"We have made a higher offer to buy the same stake," the newspaper quoted Alfa Vice President Kirill Babayev as saying. No details of the offer were reported.

Turkcell officials did not return calls for comment Thursday.

Babayev did not reply to questions e-mailed by The Associated Press, and calls to Alfa Telecom's telephone number went to a fax machine on Thursday.

A TeliaSonera spokeswoman said the company is aware of the media reports but remains committed to its acquisition of the Turkcell stake.

"We have an agreement with Cukurova and we are going to fulfill it," TeliaSonera spokeswoman Marianne Laurell told the AP. She declined to comment further.

The purchase was expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2005, giving TeliaSonera an effective ownership stake of 64.3 percent in Turkcell, the leading mobile operator in Turkey with 23.4 million subscribers.

TeliaSonera is embroiled in a dispute with Alfa over ownership of Russian wireless operator OAO MegaFon.

© "Forbes"