Qatar has given private and public sector firms a year to comply with a government directive to nationalise 20 percent of their workforce, a newspaper reported on Monday.

"It is our responsibility to provide jobs to unemployed compatriots…There is frustration among the Qatari youth," the Peninsula newspaper reported, citing Civil Service Minister Sultan Hassan al-Dosari.

It said companies have until March 31, 2009 to comply.

"We are encouraging fellow citizens to take up jobs in the private sector," Dosari said.

Qatar, holder of the world's third-biggest natural gas reserves, has a population of about 1.5 million, of which less than a third are nationals.

Like fellow Gulf Arab countries, Qatar relies heavily on foreign workers mainly from the Indian subcontinent and Arab countries such as Egypt. - Reuters