TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A slew of western lenders have applied for banking licences following a relaxation of rules under Libya's economic liberalisation programme.

Libya announced last month that, for the first time since leader Muammar Gaddafi took power four decades ago, foreigners will be allowed to open new Libyan banks, provided they have a local partner.

"There are many banks which have applied for a licence, including HSBC, Standard Chartered, UniCredit and (Banco) Espirito Santo," Central Bank Governor Farhat Benghdara said.

A decision on the first licence will be made in July.

Wealthy oil exporter Libya is attracting keen interest from foreign investors as it tries to modernise an economy that stagnated during the years that the North African country was subject to international sanctions.

Benghdara also said the central bank was putting 20 billion Libyan dinars from its reserves into a fund, designed to promote diversification of the economy, from which foreign and local investors will be able to draw loans.

"This is a small part of the resources through which we seek to ... participate in the diversification and the development of the Libyan economy," Benghdara told the Libya Business and Investment Summit in Tripoli on Tuesday.

FOREIGN STAKES

Libya nationalised all privately owned banks, whether owned by foreigners or locals, soon after Gaddafi took power in a 1969 revolution. But since international sanctions were lifted in 2004, it has launched a programme to liberalise the economy.

The central bank chief said the licence under offer was for a new bank and that the share held by the winning foreign investor would be capped at 49 percent with the rest held by a Libyan partner.

On foreigners buying into existing Libyan banks, he said that Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo was in talks with Aman Bank, and that foreign investors were also discussing possible tie-ups with other banks.

Libya has already sold minority stakes in two of its banks to foreign companies. BNP Paribas acquired a stake in Sahara bank in 2007, and a year later Jordan-based Arab Bank took a share in Libya's al-Wahda bank.

The central bank chief said he was committed to modernising the banking sector but that the 49 percent cap on foreign ownership would stay in place for the foreseeable future.

"It is a gradual strategy ... Maybe in the future we will have branches of foreign banks or these will own 100 percent of (Libyan) banks but that will not be for a long time," he said.