Israel's private Dorad Energy firm has signed a $ 2 billion deal for Egyptian natural gas with an Egyptian-Israeli consortium, its spokesman told AFP Monday.

The deal was signed last week by Dorad and East Mediterranean Gas (EMG), a joint venture between Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. and Israel's private Merhav energy firm.

"Under the contact signed last Thursday in Cairo by the CEO of  Dorad Energy, reserve general Oren Shahor, EMG will each year  provide 100 million dollars worth of natural gas, for a period of 15  to 20 years," said Dorad spokesman Ido Tal.

The sum is expected to cover one billion cubic meters (35 billion cubic feet) of gas annually, media reports said.

Dorad plans to build Israel's first private power plant by 2009 near the southern city of Ashkelon. The plant will have a capacity of 800 megawatts, or eight percent of the current capacity of the national grid.

Media reports said the terms of the deal are expected to boost prospects for other private electricity firms to build new power plants.

In 2005, EMG signed a memorandum of understanding with the Jewish state's public Israeli Electricity Company (IEC).

Under the terms, Egypt is to supply Israel with 1.7 billion cubic meters (60 billion cubic feet) of natural gas per year through a maritime pipeline to Ashkelon starting from 2007.

Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab countries to have signed peace deals with Israel.