Dusseldorf  -  Arcandor, the big German retail group, is planning to set up department stores in Russia and the Czech Republic, its chief executive Thomas Middelhoff said in an interview Friday.

The company, which operates the Karstadt chain of 90 department stores in Germany and the Quelle mail-order business, has been seeking opportunities outside Germany's stagnating retail industry.

Middelhoff affirmed in the interview with the dpa and dpa-AFX news agencies in Dusseldorf that Karstadt was not for sale.

He declined to rule out a takeover offer for Germany's other big department-store chain, Kaufhof, a unit of rival retail group Metro. The Metro chief executive, Eckhard Cordes, said several weeks ago that Metro might dispose of those stores.

An "international expansion of the department-store business" was vital to Karstadt, Middelhoff said. The target was to build non-German turnover from 40 per cent of the total currently to 50 per cent by the end of next year.

"There is already concrete planning for an extension of the department-store business in Prague and in the Russian metropolises of St. Petersburg and Moscow," he said, giving no more details. (dpa)