"No, we have not" signed off on a draft of the proposed law, Kurdistan's Oil Minister Ashti Hawrami told the business daily.

"Absolutely not."

The law aims to distribute revenues from crude oil exports equally in the 18 provinces and open the sector to foreign investors.

An Iraqi oil ministry spokesman said last Wednesday that the draft law will be submitted to the cabinet for endorsement before being sent to parliament, and said it had been approved by the energy committee.

"Several issues are not still resolved. The ministry of oil statement is unfortunately premature," Hawrami was quoted as saying by the FT.

"The head of the (committee drafting the law) is going to organise new meetings to address these issues. Probably we will reconvene next week or after to discuss the remaining issues," he said.

According to the FT, Hawrami said that several annexes as well as three associated laws governing revenue sharing, the status of the national oil company and the oil ministry's new role had yet to be drafted and agreed upon before the entire package was ready.

Iraq's oil reserves are concentrated in the Shiite south and the Kurdish north, while Sunnis make up the bulk of the population in the western regions of the country which have no oil reserves.

Oil is the key driver of the Iraqi economy.

Iraq's oil reserves, estimated at 115 billion barrels, are the third largest in the world, behind Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Iraqi production has tumbled from 3.5 million barrels per day to around two million.