<B>Industry Reports Have Stora Enso Interested in APP</B>

Finnish-Swedish forest industry group, Stora Enso, declined to comment on Swedish press reports that it was interested in buying paper mills in China from Asia Pulp and Paper.

Business newspaper, Dagens Industri, had said Stora Enso, the world's second biggest papermaker, wanted up to three of APP's paper mills and the deal would be worth between $320 million-1.0 billion. Finanstidningen also said in a report at the weekend that Stora Enso had made a bid for Singapore-based APP's fine paper operations.

"We have no comment on this matter," Stora Enso spokesman, Kari Vainio, said. "We don't comment on this kind of thing."

Dagens Industri said that deputy chief executive, Bjorn Hagglund, had visited China recently to examine APP, which has a capacity of 5.7 million metric tons per year of fine, packaging and soft paper, mostly in China, Indonesia and India.

In Asia, Stora Enso - which aims to be the world's leading forest products company - has one coated fine paper mill in Suzhou, China, tree plantations in Kalimantan in Indonesia and almost 20 percent of Thai papermaker Advance Agro.

Its arch rival, Finnish papermaker, UPM-Kymmene, has a fine paper mill in Changshu, China, and a laminate plant near Shanghai. Last year, Stora Enso took a big step forward in its North American strategy by acquiring Consolidated Papers for about $3.6 billion. – Reuters.