MUNICH (Bloomberg) — Hannover Re, the world's fourth-largest reinsurer, said it will open a branch office in Bahrain to sell conventional reinsurance in the Gulf region.Hannover Re's Bahrain branch is expected to begin operations at the start of 2008 and will "concentrate exclusively on traditional reinsurance in the region," the Hanover, Germany-based company said in a statement on Thursday distributed by the Hugin newswire.

The company, which has offices in Bermuda, in December created a unit for underwriting business in Bahrain named Hannover ReTakaful that conforms with Islamic law.

"This concentration of our activities in the Arab world will enable our clients to access our full range of services from a single location," Chief Executive Officer Wilhelm Zeller said in the statement.