More than 90 percent of foreign investment in Myanmar last year was funneled into the oil and gas sectors, according to a recently released government report.

Total foreign investment in 2007 totaled US$504.8 million of which US$474.3 million was in the oil and gas sector, the Ministry of National Planning and Development said in its latest statistical survey.

The United Kingdom led the oil and gas investors, with US$187 million, followed by India and Singapore.

Thailand last year invested US$16.22 million and Germany US$2.5 million into the manufacturing sector and South Korea US$12 million in the fishing industry, same report said.

The report said there was no new investment in mining, real estate, hotel and tourism, transport, power and the industrial sector.

Many Western countries either ban or discourage investment in Myanmar as a way of pressuring its ruling junta to improve its poor human rights record and hand over power to a democratically elected government.

The official report said the United Kingdom includes the British Virgin Islands and Bermuda. Some oil companies register in these two and other sites to bypass sanctions imposed by their governments.