Asset sale will help fund Bellsouth stake in AT&T

US phone company BellSouth has agreed to sell its Latin American wireless assets to Telefonica of Spain for about $5.9bn.(€4.77bn)

The deal brings to an end nearly 12 months of negotiations.

Telefonica have long wanted to expand operations from its Spanish base while BellSouth now intends to concentrate its energies on the US domestic market.

Last month telecom giant AT&T was bought for $41bn (€33.15m) by Cingular Wireless after a bidding war with the British-based Vodafone group.

Cingular Wireless is a joint venture between BellSouth and SBC Communications and the company indicated today that the asset sale would help fund BellSouth's $16bn (€12.94m) stake in AT&T.