Baghdad - Iraq's deputy electricity minister said on Wednesday that leading German company Siemens will provide Iraq with equipment to strengthen its power grid.

Iraq has agreed with Siemens that the company will share in the building of a total of 16 power plants with a capacity ranging from 160 to 270 megawatts, Salam Kazaz told the Iraqi al-Sabah newspaper.

He said that the power plants were aimed at strengthening the country's power network with 3,250 megawatts of power within two years.

"The deals will be sealed with Siemens after the consent of the prime minister's office," Kazaz said.

The negotiations with the German company are taking place in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

Siemens wanted to know where the power plans should be set up, in addition to the kind of fuel that the Iraqi ministry would prefer while implementing the projects, the Iraqi official said.

In the time where international companies are shying away from investing in Iraq, Kazaz stressed that a Korean company agreed to provide Iraq with 144 new power plants when Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visited China earlier this year.

Iraq's power output, currently at about 5,500 megawatts, falls far below its estimated needs of 9,000 megawatts.

Power outages and acute shortages, which are a huge source of public anger in the oil-rich country, are caused by frequent acts of sabotage on power plants.

The population in all provinces does not have electricity more than 10 hours a day.

Power supplies in the capital Baghdad are sporadic in the summer, with negative impact on water pumping, filtration and supply.(dpa)