Mongolia aims for bond by autumn, eyes infrastructure

* No amount decided for debut bond issue

* Mongolia eyes power expansion to feed Chinese demand

JAKARTA, June 12 (Reuters) - Mongolia's prime minister said on Sunday he expected the country to issue a debut sovereign bond by autumn and aimed to develop its infrastructure to export power to neighbour China.

Sukhbaatar Batbold said the amount for the bond had not been finalised. A central bank official has said the north Asian nation may raise as much as $700 million from a debut international bond issue, which was expected by the year-end.

"There are some discussions and ideas but it has not been finalized yet," Batbold told reporters at a World Economic Forum event in Jakarta. "Probably (we) will desist our discussion by the autumn session of the parliament."

He did not specify what the proceeds would be used for, though said the landlocked country plans to build railway lines and roads to neighbours China and Russia, plus power plants.

"We have also demand for power and electricity, and we have a plan to build a major power system and power generation in these mineral development areas," he said. "There is growing demand inside Mongolia and also huge demand inside China, so that we could export energy to China."

Mongolia sits on vast quantities of untapped mineral wealth and analysts say it could be one of the fastest growing economies of the next decade, as well as a key investment target for mining giants.

China and other emerging states have been snapping up coal to help feed booming demand for power, though poor infrastructure is a stumbling block to Mongolia's commodity expansion plans.

Batbold said the government was willing to take a decision "in a short time" on how to develop the massive Tavan Tolgoi field, the world's biggest untapped coking coal deposit.

ArcelorMittal , Vale and Xstrata are among six bidders short-listed to develop the mine.

A Mongolian official had previously said there was no specific timeframe, though one of the South Korean bidders has said the winner would be announced on June 30.

"We are thinking to finalize the first round of the negotiations within June...it could be continued for a longer period of time if it requires," Batbold said. (Reporting by Michael Taylor; Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Alex Richardson)

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