Abu Dhabi is considering a debt ceiling for the state and government-related borrowers, a debt official said on Wednesday.

'We think there could be that kind of thing, maybe a bit more of a soft ceiling, it's difficult to say right now,' Lars Boman, senior adviser at Abu Dhabi's Debt Management Office, told reporters on the sidelines of a Euromoney bond conference.

Abu Dhabi is trying to curtail bond sales by state entities and centralise fundraising through the debt management office in a bid to crackdown on undisciplined issuance.

Abu Dhabi and key government-related borrowers' debt currently totals around 35 per cent of GDP, Boman said.

He earlier told the conference that Abu Dhabi could issue a dollar benchmark bond in the next 6-12 months. The issue size would likely be 'at least a billion', he told reporters.-Reuters