TUNIS- Tunisia will launch an international tender on April 27 to build solar and wind renewable power plants worth 2.5 billion Tunisian dinars ($1 billion), Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said on Thursday.

The tender was to produce 1,000 MW of solar and wind electricity for the Kairouan, Tozeur, Tataouine, Sidi Bouzid, Kebeli and Tataouine regions, Chahed told reporters at an energy conference.

He gave no details.

In March, the North African country said it would invest 12 billion dinars in electricity and other energy projects from 2018 to 2020.

It had mentioned then as projects a 600 megawatt underwater power cable to link Tunisia's power grid with Italy's costing 600 million euros and two power plants with a capacity of 450 megawatts (MW) each.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; editing by Ulf Laessing and Jason Neely/Adrian Croft) ((Ulf.Laessing@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: follow me on twitter @ulflaessing))