“This law will guarantee for Iraqis - not just now, but for future generations, too - complete national control over this natural wealth,” Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said at a news conference in Baghdad.

The draft law still faces a vote in Iraq's parliament, but the US Ambassador in Baghdad hailed the February 26 agreement as a step toward a national settlement of the country's divisions.

Iraq's Constitution, adopted in 2005, declares that oil and gas reserves are “owned by all the people of Iraq”.

But nearly all of that oil is concentrated in the Kurdish north and Shiite south, raising fears in the Sunni Arab provinces of northwestern and central Iraq - the heart of the insurgency that has raged since 2003 - that Sunni Iraqis would be shut out of the country's wealth.

The same day, at least 12 people killed and 42 others wounded, including Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi, when insurgents bombed Iraq's Ministry of Municipalities building, Iraqi officials said.

Two Municipalities Ministry officials were also among those wounded in the attack on the ministry building in the western Baghdad district of Mansour, as top Iraqi officials gathered for a celebration.

In another development, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani fell ill and was flown from northern Iraq to neighboring Jordan on February 25 for treatment.

CNN