Chad said on Tuesday it was confident it could solve a dispute with the World Bank and a US-led consortium over oil revenues by the end of the month after the US government offered to help broker a deal.
The central African country has threatened to stop oil output by the end of April unless the World Bank unblocks frozen production royalties or the Exxon Mobil-led consortium in the country pays at least $100 million.
Chad is on military alert after rebels it says are backed by neighbouring Sudan attacked the capital N'Djamena last week, their boldest assault yet in their battle to end President Idriss Deby's nearly 16-year rule.
"I am very optimistic that there will be an agreement by April 30," Chad's Oil Minister Mahamat Nasser Hassan told Reuters in an interview.
"It is in the interests of everybody - of the consortium, of Chad - that we don't stop production and in order not to stop production we have to have an agreement by the end of April," he said.
Deby has in the past said Chad needed the oil revenues - some of which were meant to be set aside for future generations - to help bolster national security to face rebel attacks and the spillover of the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.
The Chadian leader's rule has been weakened by coup plots and mutinies and a wave of high-level desertions from the army.
On Monday, Deby pushed back the deadline for shutting off oil output from midday on Tuesday to the end of this month after what Chad said was a US offer to mediate in the dispute with the World Bank.
"The US government is going to get involved to find a compromise as quickly as possible," Hassan said.
Diplomats say US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Donald Yamamoto, is expected in Chad early next week for talks.
US officials have shied away from talking about mediation, instead saying Washington would act as an "honest broker" to try to foster better understanding between Chad and the World Bank.
The World Bank froze oil profits saved in a London escrow account because it said Chad breached an agreement when it changed an oil revenue law in December to access funds that were meant to be saved for future generations.
Bank President Paul Wolfowitz suspended some $125 million in loans to Chad in January,
The bank had pressed Chad to pass the original oil revenue law in exchange for funding for a $3.7 billion pipeline carrying crude from the landlocked country to the Gulf of Guinea for export. It was touted as a test case for oil revenue management in Africa.
The pipeline, which produces 160,000-170,000 barrels per day, is operated by US oil majors Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Malaysia's Petronas.
"We have waited too long. We have been very patient. For months Chadian oil has been flowing on to international markets. But Chad is not getting its dues," Hassan said.
"Either the World Bank unblocks the offshore account and the frozen revenues enter into that account, controlled by Chad, or the oil companies make direct payments," he said.
World Bank spokesman for Africa, Marco Mantovanelli, declined to comment on Chad's threat to halt oil production.
A Chadian delegation was expected for talks with the bank this week in Washington on the fringes of the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
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