At least one million cubic metres of wood came down during the storm, according to preliminary estimates by the Estonian state forest management centre.

"More than 20 percent of the planned cutting of state forest for this year has already been made -- by the storms," Ulvar Kaubi, marketing manager of the forest management centre, told AFP.

"This means we have to fully review our cutting and sales plans for the year."

But Kaubi said the the storm damage also has its positive side as it will help logging firms which have been having a bad year because of unseasonally warm and wet weather.

"As it has been very wet in the forests, conditions for felling have been extremely hard and there has been a shortage of timber on the market," he said.

"The timber firms can now move to the storm damage areas and start working, although conditions are still tough."

Kaubi added that timber prices in Estonia were unlikely to change as there has been a deficit of timber.

"The storm brings us the timber weve been lacking so far," he said.

But Rait Hiiepuu, head of the Stora Enso Mets, the Estonian wood procurement subsidiary of Finnish company Stora Enso, said prices would be affected by the storm damage done to the whole region around the Baltic Sea.

"The prices will go down everywhere because of over-supply, in particular

in Sweden," Hiiepuu told AFP.

"Estonian firms will have a hard time selling timber to Scandinavian markets as they will first clear up their own damage."

Sweden, Finland and Latvia also suffered harshly from the weekend storm, which saw winds of up to 144 kilometers per hour (86 miles per hour) lash the region.

Forests cover more than half of Estonias territory, taking up 2.3 million hectares (5.7 million acres).

Timber represents 23 percent of Estonias exports, and accounts for 5.5 percent of the countrys gross domestic product.

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