MacosXrumors was informed that Apple is ready and plans to open the iTunes Music Store in Australia as early as this week, although it is has not been confirmed whether Steve Jobs would announce the opening during his keynote on Tuesday.

Apple's music store has long been awaited in Australia, a country of around 20 million. The opening should happen this week and should be announced at least through local press, according to our source, who points out a press invitation for January the 12th available on the Australian Apple web site.

A similar number of songs to that of the US and European stores (700K - 1M tracks) are expected for Australia while the price per song remains unknown.

As of today, the source that has sent us this piece of information has not proven to be too reliable so we hope we're not raising the hopes of our Australian friends too high ;).