By Alistair Thomson and Paul-Marin Ngoupana

BANGUI, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Central African Republic has more than doubled its monthly customs receipts since the government took direct control of the customs system five months ago to root out corruption, Prime Minister Elie Dote said.

"Figures don't lie. We were seeing our imports rising, and customs receipts were falling," Dote told Reuters in an interview in his office in the capital Bangui on Monday.

"We were obliged to take the administration in hand. We have gone from 800 million or 1 billion CFA francs ($1.6 million-$2 million) a month to 2 billion CFA francs or even 2.5 billion today. So that shows there is a real problem of management and governance," he said.

The customs service was disbanded last September as part of a campaign against endemic corruption spearheaded by Dote, who is also finance minister of the impoverished, volatile country.

Some diplomats in Bangui say Dote cuts an isolated figure and it is unclear how far he will be able to push his campaign.

Dote said he hoped financial reforms and a thawing of relations with donors would pave the way for the forgiveness of all of the landlocked country's foreign debts.

Years of instability saw foreign embassies and aid agencies pack their bags to leave the former French colony, which amassed substantial debts to the World Bank and other lenders.

Central African Republic repaid its arrears to the World Bank and a bridging loan from France last November thanks to an $82 million loan approved by the Bank, allowing it to mend its relations with the donor and aid community.

Dote said the government owed around 140 billion CFA ($280.5 million) in domestic debt, around half in unpaid state salaries alone.

SALARY ARREARS

Some state employees are owed more than three years of salary arrears accumulated over years of instability, including the rebellion and coup which put President Francois Bozize in power in March 2003.

Dote said he could not give a figure for the total outstanding foreign debt, which was being audited by the World Bank, but said foreign donors had already forgiven around half.

One diplomat said the total foreign debt write-off would be worth around $100 million to CAR, adding it was part of an attempt by the international community to shore up Bozize's government in the face of rebel insurgencies and instability linked to war in Sudan's neighbouring Darfur region.

French special forces, jet fighter planes and helicopters helped recapture a large tranche of Central African Republic territory around the town of Birao near the Sudanese border in December after a six-week rebel occupation.

But instability persists in north-western areas where rebel forces, government troops, armed highwaymen and raiders from neighbouring Chad have attacked civilians, forcing some 220,000 people from their homes, according to U.N. estimates.

Asked about accusations of abuses by government troops, including widespread reports that Bozize's Presidential Guard have burnt villages suspected of supporting rebels, Dote said there was little proof of who was responsible and in any case establishing peace was more important than apportioning blame.

The government signed a peace deal with a rebel leader, Abdoulaye Miskine, in Libya in early February, and is trying to sign up other rebel leaders. The move could pave the way for United Nations peacekeepers to deploy on the border with Darfur.

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