The Bangladeshi Finance Minister Saifur Rahman has told the BBC's World Business Report that his government is doing its best to tackle corruption.

Mr Rahman said Bangladesh has implemented World Bank guidelines aimed at stamping out corruption in government procurement.

"We are taking every possible step to get out of this stigma," he said.

Mr Rahman's remarks come shortly after the anti-corruption pressure group Transparency International named Bangladesh as the most corrupt country in the world.

Transparency International's move has raised fears that foreign investors may shun Bangladesh at time when Dhaka is preparing to privatise some state-owned industries.

Worldwide problem

But Mr Rahman added that the West is by no means free of corruption.

"Corruption travels from the developed countries to the developing - we learn corruption from them," he told World Business Report.

Mr Rahman said that the issue of whether Bangladesh's could sell its vast reserves of natural gas to neighbouring India was fraught by politics.

"There is an historical mind-set between India and Bangladesh," he said.

"Leaving gold and diamonds below the ground is no wealth - but the gas trade is tempered by internal politics," he added.