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JAKARTA, July 1 (Reuters) Indonesia's largest mobile phone operator, PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel), had around 29 million users by the end of June and expected strong growth to continue next year, its president director said late on Friday.

Telkomsel, 65 percent owned by Indonesia's largest telecommunication company, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk, had 24.3 million users by the end of last year.

''As of June we have 29.2 million users. Our year-end target was 33 million,'' Kiskenda Suriahardja told reporters.

Mobile phone use in the world's fourth most populous nation has been growing at a robust pace in recent years, and analysts say prospects of further growth are good as Indonesia catches up with more saturated Southeast Asian markets.

The number of users was expected to reach 100 million by 2010 from around 45 million by the end of last year.

At 21 percent, the penetration rate in Southeast Asia's largest economy is still low compared with Malaysia's 80 percent and Thailand's 49 percent.

To catch up with the strong growth, Telkomsel, 35 percent owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., would allocate 11.94 trillion rupiah ($1.29 billion) for capital expenditure this year and 14 trillion rupiah for next year.

Including Telkomsel's capital expenditure, Telkom's capex would be 19.1 trillion rupiah for this year and 18.64 trillion rupiah in 2007.

Telkomsel controls more than half of Indonesia's mobile phone market, followed by PT Indosat Tbk, with 27 percent of total subscribers, and PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk.

Singapore's ST Telemedia has a 42 percent stake in Indosat and Telekom Malaysia Bhd controls Excelcom.

($1=9,262 rupiah) REUTERS PV KN1216