"We met a number of European companies after the OPEC meeting and invited them to present their thoughts on how to develop the oil industry of Iraq," said Nabil Musawi, a member of Iraq's OPEC delegation, on Monday.

"Dr Ibrahim's (New Iraqi Oil Minister) idea is to get some social development projects injected into the process ... and one of the main areas is training Iraqis outside Iraq."

So far, US firms have enjoyed preferential treatment in the allocation of lucrative oil development contracts in the war-torn country, with US Vice President Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton securing several billions dollars worth of work in no-bid open ended deals.

Under Saddam Hussein's rule a number of major European firms had their sights set on some of Iraq's biggest oilfield prospects with France's Total and Royal Dutch/Shell eyeing the massive Nassiryah and Ratawi fields.

However the Governing Council instead is likely to focus on short and medium term projects that will require $2 billion of investment in the early stages.

Investment is urgently needed to boost production from Iraq's shattered oil sector to 3.5 to four million barrels daily by end 2005 from the current 1.8 million now.