Euronews considers Arabic broadcast

BRUSSELS, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- The European Commission is looking at an increase in funding to news channel Euronews so that it can broadcast in Arabic.

EU communication commissioner Margot Wallstrom told the EU Observer that broadcasting in Arabic would help in "building bridges" to the Muslim world, the newspaper said.

Euronews, a consortium of public broadcasters, receives nearly $6.4 million a year from the EU commission to provide news in seven languages.

Adding Arabic to the list of languages would require an additional annual investment of $3.8 to $6.4 million, commission officials said.

Euronews is distributed to 140 million households in Europe, as well as to almost 16 million households in the Middle East and Africa, the newspaper said.