NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Here are some key facts about Mauritania:

* Almost all of Mauritania's 2.9 million people are Muslims and it is officially an Islamic Republic. Light-skinned Moors have dominated government since independence in 1960. Black Africans make up about one third of the population.

* Most of Mauritania is desert. It is almost twice as big as former colonial power France, but has little more than 800 km (500 miles) of paved roads.

* In 2004 locusts invaded Mauritania’s entire agricultural production zone. The World Food Programme estimates that 60 percent of families living in the zone will experience food shortages in 2005.

* Main products are fish, livestock and iron ore, though offshore oil reserves promise to revolutionise the economy. Average annual per capita income was $430 in 2003, according to World Bank statistics. Average life expectancy is 52 years.

* Power has not changed hands through the ballot box since independence from France in 1960. President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya seized power in a 1984 coup and brooked little opposition since. He won elections in 1992, 1997 and 2003.

* Mauritania became only the third Arab country to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1999, despite popular opposition. It did not openly back the U.S. war to remove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein but did not denounce it either.