Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani answers a question during a news conference in Beijing October 28, 2006. [Reuters]

China and Iraq are reviving a 1997 deal worth $1.2 billion signed by Beijing and Baghdad when Saddam Hussein was in power, to develop an Iraqi oil field, Baghdad's oil minister said Saturday.

Officials will meet next month to renegotiate the agreement over the al-Ahdab field, said Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani. He was wrapping up a three-nation tour to secure investment to revive his country's oil industry.

"If agreement is reached very quickly then I expect them to start working right away," al-Shahristani said at a news conference in Beijing.

China is the world's second-largest oil consumer and has been investing heavily in trying to secure access to foreign supplies.

State-owned China National Petroleum Corp signed the al-Ahdab deal in the midst of UN sanctions that barred direct dealings with Iraq's oil industry. Beijing was waiting for sanctions to end when the US invasion in 2003 overthrew Saddam's government.

All other energy contracts signed by foreign producers during the Saddam era also must be renegotiated after Iraqi lawmakers enact a new oil and gas law, which is likely to happen this year.

Al-Shahristani said al-Ahdab would be among the first fields offered to foreign bidders, which will need to show technical and financial capability and a proven record in producing oil.

Iraq will need up to $20 billion in investment to develop its oil infrastructure, the minister said.

Al-Shahristani met with Chinese energy officials and executives of the country's four biggest oil companies -- CNPC, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, China National Offshore Oil Corp and Sinochem Corp.

He said questions about security in Iraq didn't come up, because the fields that interest Chinese producers are in the south, where violence is minimal.

He said Iraq also wants to develop areas in its western desert and the Kurdish region in the north.