Iraq's sabotaged crude oil pipeline to Turkey has been fixed, and exports are expected to resume to Ceyhan port, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said yesterday.

"We have fixed the pipeline, and we will resume exports to Ceyhan," he told reporters.

Mr Shahristani did not say when exports would start, but a senior source in the oil ministry told Reuters that Iraq had fixed only one of the two export pipelines, and it would take some time before repairs were completely finished. Sabotage of the two pipelines has left Iraq's northern exports idle since July 9.

The restarting of exports last month after a seven-month stoppage due to bomb attacks had raised hopes of a major increase in export sales and revenues for Iraq. The country had tried to boost security by placing the pipeline under the protection of the army instead of a dedicated force. The pipelines have been mostly unusable due to sabotage since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Oil is the country's main source of the hard currency needed to rebuild its economy.

The industry needs billions of dollars of investment to overhaul infrastructure and boost output after years of sanctions, war and mismanagement.

Mr Shahristani said that, once resumed, the northern exports would start at a rate of 600,000-700,000 barrels per day.

A senior source at the oil ministry separately said exports were expected to start in few days.

Iraq needs to attract investment from international oil companies if it is to hit Shahristani's longer-term production targets of 4.3 million bpd within the next four years and between six million and eight million bpd by 2015.