CAIRO: Egyptian company Orascom Telecom said Monday it had appealed a $596.6 million tax bill levied against its Algerian subsidiary, a dispute that surfaced amid tension between the two countries over a World Cup qualifier match.

In a statement Monday, Orascom, which operates Mobinil, Egypt’s largest mobile phone service provider by subscribers, said it would pay 20 percent of the taxes and penalties assessed against it by Algerian tax authorities as a prerequisite to filing the appeal.

The company said it paid roughly $120 million to Algerian authorities on Dec. 24 “under protest and in reservation of all rights.” The dispute surfaced last month amid tension between Egypt and Algeria over a World Cup qualifier match. Egyptian businesses in the country — including those belonging to Orascom subsidiary Orascom Telecom Algerie — were damaged by Algerian football fans, straining relations between the two nations.

The attacks came after Egyptian fans attacked a bus carrying the Algerian national football team to a match in Cairo days earlier. Three Algerian players were injured.

In the Orascom case, Algerian authorities argued the company did not maintain proper accounts between 2005 and 2007.

Orascom, which operates mobile phone networks in several African nations as well as North Korea and Pakistan, has argued the claims are “unfounded and unacceptable,” and that it was exempt from taxes during that period.

The dispute cast a pall over the telecom giant. Its Algeria operations account for roughly 40 percent of its revenues and authorities in the North African country had said that given the outstanding bill, Orascom would not be able to transfer dividends out of the country.

To allay concerns about possible cash flow issues, Orascom shareholders have approved a rights offering of $800 million.

The “proceeds of the rights issue should ensure that (Orascom Telecom’s) overall liquidity and financing needs would not be jeopardized, as a result of the blockage of cash in Algeria and incapability to repatriate dividends” until fiscal 2011, according to a research note issued Monday by Mideast investment bank Beltone Financial.

The Algeria tax issue is the latest hurdle for Orascom.

The company has been locked in a dispute with France Telecom for months over an arbitration court’s ruling requiring it to sell its stake in Mobinil Telecom, a holding company that owns a 51 percent stake in the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services — Mobinil’s operator.

Egyptian regulators earlier this month approved an offer by FT unit Orange Participations, dealing a blow to Orascom after authorities in the country had sided with them three times in blocking the sale. Orascom said it would appeal that decision.

Orascom operates mobile phone networks in Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Bangladesh and North Korea, and has indirect equity ownership in networks in Zimbabwe, Burundi, the Central African Republic and Namibia.

Orascom said the partial tax bill it paid to file the appeal is recoverable if it prevails in the dispute.