The Central African Republic could face a ban on exports of its diamonds if the Kimberley Process (KP) initiative, set up to stem the flow of conflict diamonds, approves a suspension at a meeting on May 10, the head of the process said on Monday.

Controls there have collapsed after a March coup, Welile Nhlapo, KP chairperson told reporters at a meeting of the World Diamond Council in Tel Aviv.

The CAR's new leader Michel Djotodia toppled President Francois Bozize's regime after leading thousands of his Seleka rebels into the capital Bangui, triggering days of looting.

Mining continues in areas controlled by the rebels "and the diamonds that are being mined are not finding themselves in the rightful place where they can undergo all the processes that are KP compliant," Nhlapo said.

The CAR has agreed to attend the May 10 meeting to discuss the possibility of allowing a KP review mission to establish what is happening in the mining areas.

At the moment there are no guarantees that the systems are in place for KP certification to be issued declaring those diamonds to be "conflict free", Nhlapo said.

"There is sufficient evidence that diamonds have been used by the rebels, who have been extracting and trading them to acquire the necessary resources that they managed to get in order to overthrow the elected government that was in place," he said.

Nhlapo said an "overwhelming" number of members of the KP ballot need to approve the export suspension but he did not specify how many.

The ban, if approved, will last until the KP can send a monitoring team to establish what is happening "so that no diamonds that are illegally mined by the rebels find their way through the KP certification scheme because some of them are in government, they can have access to those certificates".

Nhlapo said diamonds were an important source of revenue to help the CAR in its post-conflict reconstruction and development. Venezuela has already suspended itself because of lack of compliance with KP.

"They wanted to return to KP but because of complications in that country, particularly in the passing of President [Hugo Chavez] there was no possibility of getting a firm response for a review mission," Nhlapo said, noting there are claims that mining is taking place.

Venezuela has not been able to supply statistics about the amount of diamonds it mines, he said.