Bumper oil revenues accruing to Nigeria and other oil producing countries will lead to higher growth rates in sub-Saharan Africa, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.

The Washington-based IMF raised Wednesday its economic growth forecast for the region to 6.8 percent for 2007, up from its earlier forecast of 6.3 percent.

It explained that the expected higher growth in the world's poorest region was fuelled primarily by the oil-exporting countries in the region, notably Nigeria and Angola.

The lending agency said in its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook report that Nigeria's economy would benefit as disruptions of oil production activities eased in the Niger Delta area.

The report forecast an 8.2 percent expansion of Nigeria's economy this year and 6.7 percent in 2008, up from 5.3 percent in 2006.

"Oil exporting countries are driving economic growth in sub- Saharan Africa as rising oil prices boost investment. That is helping to sustain the longest expansion in the region's economy in more than three decades," the IMF said.

"These developments have raised hopes that Africa has entered a period of strong and sustained growth that will begin to make deeper inroads into the extremely high poverty rates that still plague the continent," it noted.

Including North African countries, growth on the continent will reach 6.2 percent this year from 5.5 per cent last year, the IMF said, adding that Africa's economy will probably expand 5.8 percent next year.

Economic growth in Angola, the number two oil producer in sub- Saharan Africa, will more than double to 35 percent this year from 15 percent last year, as new production facilities begin operating, the IMF said.

Investment in the southern African country has surged after the end of a 26-year civil war in 2002.