March 04, 2007	Sunday	Safar 14, 1428

LIBREVILLE, March 3: Gabon, one of Africa's wealthiest countries thanks to oil reserves and a tiny population, raised fuel pump prices on Saturday by 25 per cent to improve public finances, a state regulator said.

The country's fuel prices regulator CAISTAB said it had raised petrol prices to 595 CFA francs ($1.20) a litre from 475 francs, while diesel went up to 470 CFA francs from 375.

"This was a readjustment dictated by the need to improve the state of Gabon's public finances," the CAISTAB said in a statement.

"In August 2002 the government had suspended application of the indexing mechanism for petroleum products and had to take on a portion of the real market price of these products worth 102 billion CFA francs ($205.1 million) in 2006," it said.

Long lines of vehicles queued up at filling stations in the capital Libreville late on Friday to top up their tanks after the CAISTAB announced plans for the price rise, disrupting traffic in some districts. Service stations were quiet on Saturday.

To offset the impact for the poorest citizens, the CAISTAB said it had maintained lamp paraffin and butane gas for cooking respectively at 245 CFA francs a litre and 5,625 francs a canister.—Reuters