Iraq's oil minister on Tuesday asked international oil firms bidding for oil contracts to reconsider their proposals for fields the Oil Ministry had yet to strike deals on.

Of eight giant oil and gas fields on offer, Iraq had only struck a deal with a BP-led group for the largest - Rumaila - while offers on the others came in far above the maximum fee the government was willing to pay for every extra barrel of oil produced.

Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani set a deadline of 1800 local/1500 GMT for oil executives gathered in Baghdad to resubmit bids in Iraq's first auction of major oil and gas contracts since the 2003 US-led invasion.