“Actual production of oil depends on pipelines, if they are functioning or not," Iraqi finance minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi told the media in Washington DC.

"We could achieve 2.5 million of production per day and we expect to reach 3.5 million, maybe by the end of 2005.”

The Iraqi minister was in the US capital to formally sign an agreement with the US government which formally writes-off Iraq’s US$4.1 billion debt to the US.