ODESSA, Aug. 26 - Large foreign companies, including the Ofer Group of Israel, European Mayers and CMN, as well as Itochu Corp. of Japan have shown interest in a $1.5 bln project for the development of the Odessa maritime merchant port, Mykola Pavliuk, the director of the port, said at a press conference in Odessa on Thursday.

He said the program, which will last until 2008, would increase the port's cargo handling capacity from 33 million to 35 million tons of cargo a year, as well as quadrupling its container handling capacity to 2 million containers a year.