Norway excludes Rio Tinto from oil fund

OSLO, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Norway's finance ministry on Tuesday said it has excluded iron ore miner Rio Tinto from its $375 billion sovereign wealth fund due to environmental concerns over its activities.

"The finance ministry has decided to exclude the company Rio Tinto from the Government Pension Fund -- Global (oil fund) due to a risk of contributing to severe environmental damage," the finance ministry said in a statement.

"There are no indications to the effect that the company's practices will be changed in future, or that measures will be taken to significantly reduce damage to nature and the environment," it added.

At the end of 2007, the oil fund held shares worth 4.42 billion Norwegian crowns in Rio Tinto Plc and 430 million crowns in Rio Tinto Ltd. "The divestment of securities has been completed," it said.

The Government Pension Fund -- Global, familiarly known as the "oil fund", invests under ethical guidelines set by the government and has in the past excluded companies that produce nuclear arms or cluster munitions and groups deemed to have caused environmental damage or abused human or worker rights. (Reporting by John Acher)