MADRID, March 12 (Reuters) - Exiled Equatorial Guinean politician Severo Moto, wanted on suspicion of involvement in a 2004 coup plot, will be able to stay in Spain after the High Court decided on Wednesday he could keep his asylum status.

Moto, who leads a self-proclaimed government-in-exile, was granted asylum in 1986. Equatorial Guinea requested an international arrest warrant for him in 2004, following an attempt to oust President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasago.

Moto has denied any connection to the conspiracy.

The High Court accepted Moto's appeal against a January 2006 Spanish government decision to revoke his asylum status, the court said in a news release.

Former British army officer Simon Mann, arrested in March 2004 meeting a plane full of men and military equipment in Zimbabwe, admitted plotting to oust Obiang in an interview broadcast on British television on Tuesday.

The Spanish government has tried to foster good relations with its former African colony, which has rich offshore oil fields.

Obiang took power in 1979 in a coup in which he killed his uncle. (Reporting by Inmaculada Sanz; Editing by Alastair Sharp)

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