UPDATE 1-Perenco may halt Ecuador oil output over tax spat

(Adds comments from Ecuadorean oil ministry)

By Eduardo Garcia

QUITO, July 13 (Reuters) - French oil company Perenco warned Ecuador on Monday that it could temporarily halt operations in the country if the government does not return the oil it confiscated from the company over unpaid taxes.

Ecuador has been seizing the bulk of the company's production since March in a bid to collect more than $350 million it believes the company owes the state in windfall taxes.

"The government didn't give us a choice ... Right now, we're considering suspending operations, but the government could overcome this, giving back the petroleum it confiscated," Perenco's Latin American manager Rodrigo Marquez told Reuters.

Perenco extracts around 22,000 barrels per day from Ecuador's Amazon jungle.

"We're not stopping our operations. We're (talking about) an imminent suspension ... because the government of Rafael Correa is acting illegally," Marquez said in a phone interview.

"It'd be a clear violation of the terms of the contract that (Perenco) has with the country and in terms of sovereignty we won't allow it," the oil and mines ministry said in a statement on Monday evening, without giving details of how it could force the oil company to continue producing.

Perenco launched a suit against Ecuador and state-run Petroecuador last year to dispute the legality of the windfall tax, saying the levy violates its contract.