Angolan Prime Minister Fernando Dias dos Santos has said that the oil-rich northern province of Cabinda is to be given "special status" in an effort to end fighting with separatist rebels in the region.

Santos said at the National Assembly that the government planned to devolve some authority and powers to Cabinda to strengthen the local administration of the province, according to local media reports on Wednesday.

He said the talks were in progress with civil society in Cabinda and representatives from the independence movement of Front for the Liberation of Cabinda Enclave (FLEC), which has waged a low-level insurgency since the early 1960s.

Cabinda, wedged between the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has a population of some 300,000 and produces about 1 million barrels of oil daily from its offshore fields.

After more than three years of peace deal in Angola, Cabindans are seeking a greater share of wealth from the vast hydrocarbon resources in the enclave where unemployment stands at about 90 percent.

Source: Xinhua