Bolivia takes control of gas sale

Bolivia's President Evo Morales has ordered foreign energy companies to hand over all gas and oil sales to a state-owned

company.

At a ceremony live on television, he said what he called the pillage of Bolivia's natural resources was over.

The firms have six months now to renegotiate their contracts or else leave the country, he said.

Mr Morales was elected pledging greater control over what are South America's second largest natural gas reserves.

He said he had ordered the army's engineering corp to take control of the oilfields.

The main foreign oil firms operating in Bolivia are Brazil's Petrobras, the Spanish-Argentine company Repsol YPF, British

companies British Gas and British Petroleum and France's Total.