Published: March 24, 2005, 11:06 AM PST

By Reuters

Convenience store operator 7-Eleven plans to test selling music downloads this year as it looks for ways to cash in on the booming demand for portable digital content, its chief executive officer said Wednesday.

James Keyes said selling digital content, including music, could provide a good growth opportunity as sales of portable gadgets such as Apple Computer`s iPod take off. Customers should be able to walk into a 7-Eleven store to burn their favorite songs onto a CD or download content onto their portable music player, Keyes told a Merrill Lynch retailing and consumer products industry conference in New York.

7-Eleven, which operates or franchises about 5,800 stores in the United States and Canada and licenses about 22,000 more in 17 other countries, also wants to tap into the movie downloading business, but not until it has the technology to download a full feature-length movie in just two minutes or less, Keyes said.

``We think in 10 years this could be a significant opportunity,`` he said about the prospect of movie downloads in the convenience stores.

Last year, leading specialty coffee retailer launched a music service in 45 of its U.S. stores that allows customers to burn songs onto CDs while they wait for their favorite coffee drinks.