The Iraqi government needs to invest in widespread training programmes and infrastructure improvements so as to treble its crude oil export capacities, the leader of the semiautonomous Kurdish region has argued.

With the Kurds and the central government currently discussing oil contract signing rights, Nechirvan Barzani has called for six million barrels a day to be exported in order to drive the national economy forward.

He argued that a lack of modern equipment and training, brought about by years of UN sanctions and the dictatorship of Saddaam Hussein, mean that Iraq is currently way behind the likes of Saudi Arabia - which produces up to 11 million barrels a day - despite sitting on the third-largest proven oil reserves in the world of some 115 billion barrels.

Speaking on behalf of the Kurdish people at a news conference, Barzani stated: "We think Iraq needs to export more oil."

He added that it is "important" that Iraqi lawmakers come to an agreement with the Kurds, as well as with the country's Sunni and Shiite regions, which would allow them to continue to deal directly with outside parties, arguing that failure to do so could mean "foreign companies won't come to invest".