Kurdish rebels claimed responsibility yesterday for a bomb attack on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline which halted Iraq oil exports to Turkey, according to the Firat news agency, which has close links to the rebels.

A section of the pipeline in southeast Turkey was still ablaze after Friday night's attack but the fire was under control, a Turkish energy ministry source told Reuters.

Iraq's Oil Ministry spokesman said Baghdad expected the pipeline to be reopened in a week and that loadings at Ceyhan would not be affected. Firat reported the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants as saying the sabotage attack caused extensive damage.

Oil exports were halted after the blast and the Turkish Energy Ministry source said the timing of repairs and reopening would only become clear once the fire had been extinguished.

"The fire is continuing but as of this morning it has been brought under control," the source said.

Sources from the ministry and the pipeline company Botas had previously told Reuters the attack occurred around 8.30 p.m. on Friday near Midyat in Mardin province.

The blast damaged a 46-inch pipeline, the sources said. No details on the scale of damage were available.

"It will definitely take more than 48 hours to fix, but no longer than a week," the Iraqi spokesman said, adding that the estimation was based on previous experience with damaged pipelines in Iraq, and not from reports on the attack in Turkey.

Baghdad also expects loading of oil shipments at Ceyhan to be unaffected despite a halt in pumping from Iraq, spokesman Asim Jihad said.

"This will not affect exports because there is enough in storage. Exports are made from storage, so just because the pipeline is closed doesn't mean exports have stopped," he said.