ABU DHABI  - The United Arab Emirates' Finance Ministry will set up a federal debt management office this year and will seek a sovereign rating for the Gulf state, an undersecretary of the ministry said on Monday.

"We want to be rated. It all depends on what we’ll be agreeing with the central bank," Younis Haji al-Khoori said, adding no rating agency had been appointed yet. "There is no immediate need for issuance of federal bonds."

(Reporting by Stanley Carvalho Editing by Edmund Blair) ((aziz.elyaakoubi@thomsonreuters.com; +971552994086; Reuters Messaging: aziz.elyaakoubi.reuters.com@reuters.net))