KFC, the world's largest chicken restaurant chain, announced its expansion plan to have up to 28 outlets in the country by the end of 2006, Indo-Asian News Service reported.

"We plan to expand to wherever our customers are and there is no limit to our expansion. By the year-end we will have anywhere between 25 to 28 outlets," said Sandeep Kohli, managing director (Indian subcontinent) of Yum! Restaurants International (YRI), whose flagship brand is KFC.

The fast food giant had opened its first restaurant in Bangalore, capital of south India's Karnataka in 1995 and now has 15 outlets, including five in Bangalore, three in Delhi, two in Pune and one each in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Hyderabad.

Each outlet has handled round 2,000 customers every day in the country, Kohli said in Mumbai.

With global sales of 13.2 billion US dollars, company officials view India as a key strategic market with immense potential for future growth.

But the company's expansion plan has roused protests of animal protection activists in Mumbai.

Activists of the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a non-government organization, demonstrated against KFC's maltreatment of chickens in front of the new restaurant in Bandra, a suburb of Mumbai.

KFC today has more than 12,300 restaurants in more than 80 countries.

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