searching for an easy library to create OpenOffice spreadsheets

[Krishnakant]

Hello all,
I am looking out for a python library which does the followingg.
1, create and manipulate openoffice spreadsheets.
2, allow for cell formatting including merging cells.
3, allow for colouring cells and formatting data as bold italics etc.
4, alignment of data should be possible.
I looked at ooolib but did not find a method for merging cells.

any ideas?

happy hacking.
Krishnakant.