Nov 3 (Reuters) - Equatorial Guinea has pardoned British ex-special forces officer Simon Mann, jailed last year for his role in a failed 2004 plot to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. The move came just weeks before a Nov. 29 poll where Obiang is expected to renew his mandate.

Here are some facts about the tiny central African coastal state, the sub-Saharan region's third largest oil producer after Nigeria and Angola.

-- Equatorial Guinea -- population 700,000 -- nurtures hopes of becoming Africa's Dubai, the Arab emirate which has ploughed oil wealth into other sectors from tourism to real estate.

-- Oil production has leapt from virtually nothing in the early 1990s to around 450,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2008. Official foreign assets had jumped to $7.1 billion by the end of 2007 from under $1 billion at the end of 2003.

-- During Obiang's 30-year rule, the country has attracted criticism for human rights abuses and mismanagement of its oil wealth. In 2008 the Transparency International watchdog put it in the top 10 of states perceived to be corrupt, with a reputation worse than that of Democratic Republic of Congo.

-- As elsewhere in the Gulf of Guinea, the threat of insecurity is constant. In February, armed forces repelled an attack on its island capital Malabo by seaborne gunmen, an assault the government blamed on attackers from the nearby Niger Delta.

-- With one of Africa's highest per capita incomes -- around $37,200, according to the CIA for 2008 -- there is no shortage of money. But critics have said there has not been enough focus on sectors like health and education.

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