The decision was taken a week ago, during President Teodoro Obiang Nguema's visit to Washington, said a presidential statement read on national radio.
The US had closed its embassy in Malabo in 1995 because of budgetary constraints, according to the official explanation. The country's opposition said the closure was due to human rights violations in the small coastal nation.
The reopening, due within three months, shows the "recognition of important progress that the Equatorial Guinean government has made in the political, socio-economic and human rights domains," the statement said.
US oil companies have had exclusive exploration rights to oil reserves off Equatorial Guinea's shores since 1992, when oil was first discovered in the waters of the impoverished nation.
Prior to the discovery, Equatorial Guinea was one of the poorest countries in the world, with corruption and mismanagement leading the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to cut off a string of aid programmes in 1993.
But the oil discovery has fuelled dramatic economic growth in the former Spanish colony in recent years.
Several US companies, including Marathon Oil, have interests in Equatorial Guinea, situated between Gabon and Cameroon.
Oil output is currently estimated at around 250 000 barrels a day and experts say the country could rapidly become sub-Saharan Africa's third largest producer after Nigeria and Angola.
While per capita gross GDP shot to more than $1 170 in 1999, according to World Bank figures, the majority of the population continues to live in poverty. - Sapa-AFP.
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