Mauritania's new military rulers are to adopt an international initiative aimed at improving transparency in oil revenues, the country's energy and oil minister said on Monday.
Mohamed Ali Ould Sidi Mohamed said Mauritania would sign up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which requires governments to publish details of money received from oil and mining companies.
"There is now a new government and this government decided to adopt the EITI ... the EITI permits us to regulate the behaviour between companies and the government," Sidi Mohamed told journalists on the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress in Johannesburg.
Oil firms operating in Mauritania have estimated its reserves to run into the hundreds of millions of barrels. Oil production is expected to begin in January 2006, and the country has also discovered gas, Sidi Mohamed said.
Earlier at the conference, World Bank official Michael Levitsky had cited Mauritania as one of African countries most resistant to being open about oil and gas revenues.
Army officers toppled president Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya last month in a coup that was welcomed by many in the West African country who resented his authoritarian rule and repression of Islamist opponents.
Levitsky welcomed Mauritania's adoption of the initiative.
HDR
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