NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) - Mauritania will set up a special...

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) - Mauritania will set up a special state bank account to manage all oil revenues in the West African country in a bid to avert corruption and ensure transparency in the oil sector, a government spokesman said Thursday.

The desert nation is expected to begin pumping oil for the first time later month at an offshore platform that authorities hope will produce 75,000 barrels daily.

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Communications Minister Cheikh Ould Ebbe told reporters the decision to set up the state account was made during a Cabinet meeting Wednesday night.

"These account will store all oil income of the state, such as resources generated by ... oil production, as well as royalties, taxes and other oil receipts," Ebbe said.

All state oil income must be deposited in the account and pledged the money "will be used exclusively for the state budget," Ebbe said.

Other African nations like Sao Tome and Principe, which has yet to start producing oil, have set up similar accounts to manage oil funds.

Last month, the World Bank suspended US$124 million (euro103 million) in loans to Chad after Chad's parliament passed legislation making major changes to a 1999 World Bank agreement on the allocations of oil revenue, including abolishing a fund set aside to fight poverty in the country after oil wells ran dry.

The World Bank suspension automatically froze Chad's ability to transfer oil revenues that have been deposited at the London branch of Citibank.

In Mauritania, oil production was due to start Feb. 17 but government officials say it has been delayed and is expected to begin by the end of the month at the offshore Chinguetti oil field, located 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of the capital, Nouakchott.

The offshore field is operated by Woodside Energy of Australia. Mauritanian officials say production is expected average about 75,000 barrels of oil a day for nine years.

The oil was expected to bring a vital source of income to the Ar-ab-dominated desert nation, whose 2.7 million inhabitants live on less than US$1 (or euro1) a day.

Junta leader Ely Ould Mohamed Vall has ruled Mauritania since toppling President Maaouya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya in a popular bloodless coup in August.