Baghdad  - Iraq's Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said on Tuesday called oil deals between the government of the Kurdish region and foreign oil companies are "illegal".

"Iraq's oil ministry considers the contracts signed by the Kurdish government with the international oil companies illegitimate and illegal," Al-Shahristani told the state-run TV channel of Iraqia.

This is the second time the Iraqi government has said that these agreements by the Kurdish region were signed illegally. Last week the government said oil contracts in Kurdistan were signed "without the knowledge of the federal government".

"No one should sign deals on behalf of Iraq. The Ministry is the responsible body for these deals and any contract should be presented to the Ministry," added al-Shahrastani.

On Sunday, the regional government of the semi-autonomous region announced it has told three foreign oil companies to prepare to start exporting oil on June 1.

The Kurdish government said it would export about 60,000 barrels of oil a day to Turkey from the Tawke field, near the city of Dohuk, some 460 kilometres north of Baghdad.

The regional government's Ministry of Natural Resources on Sunday said the Kurdish region would export roughly 100,000 barrels of crude oil a day in the next month from two oil fields.

The issue of oil exports from the Kurdish region remains a source of dispute between the Kurdish semi-autonomous government and Baghdad. An oil law governing the export of crude has been held up in the Iraqi parliament since 2007.

Kurdish officials say the agreements were legal, and were struck in accordance with the Iraqi constitution. (dpa)