GENEVA, April 18 (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights office will stop work in Angola by the end of May at the government's request, a U.N. spokesman said on Friday.

Louise Arbour, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, "respected but regretted" a government decision not to conclude negotiations on a comprehensive agreement for its work in the country, her spokesman Rupert Colville said.

"There is plenty of work to do on the human rights front, that is clear. We certainly feel we could have contributed usefully," Colville told a news briefing.

No further explanation was given for the decision by the government of the OPEC member, which was devastated by a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.

U.N. human rights investigators said last September that people are still being detained, tortured and often denied access to a lawyer in the African country. A special rapporteur or investigator of the U.N. Human Rights Council also said last year that Muslims lacked religious rights and were stigmatised.

The U.N. human rights office has had an informal presence in Angola since May 2003, focused on raising awareness of issues and promoting human rights teaching in schools. It had hoped to formalise arrangements through a memorandum of understanding.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch says growing oil revenues have helped insulate Angola from foreign criticism over human rights. The group has highlighted forcible evictions and an increasingly hostile environment for media and civil society groups. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Matthew Tostevin)

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