The deals were with a consortium made up of Turkey's TPAO, Kuwait Energy and Korean Gas Corporation for the Mansuriyah field in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.

A draft agreement with Kuwait Energy and Korean Gas Corporation for the Siba field in Basra, Iraq's southernmost province.

"The initialling of draft agreements was done on Mansuriyah and Siba but Akkaz was delayed until after Eid," spokesman Assem Jihad told AFP, referring to the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, which concludes on November 20.

"The companies (that bid to develop Akkaz) asked for more time to clarify some points."

Iraq's cabinet still needs to approve the agreements before they can be officially signed.

Mansuriyah has estimated reserves of 127 billion cubic metres (4.5 trillion cubic feet) of gas, while Siba has 34 billion cubic metres (1.5 trillion cubic feet).

The Akkaz field in Anbar province, west Iraq, is the country's biggest with reserves of 158 billion cubic metres (5.6 trillion cubic feet) and was auctioned off to Korean Gas Corporation and Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGaz.

Iraq needs the energy revenues from the increased production to cut down on unemployment -- running at 28 percent, according to the United Nations -- and provide much-needed electricity to end routine power rationing.

Iraq's current gas production -- all of it associated gas from oil wells -- is 1.5 million cubic metres a day, but half is burned off in flares from oil wells, according to Baghdad-based analyst Ruba Husari.

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