Now oil majors such as BP and Shell in Britain, and Exxon and Chevron in the US, would be able to sign deals of up to 30 years to extract Iraq's oil, at an unfair deal due to Iraq's weakened state.

Now, unnoticed by most amid the furore over civil war in Iraq and the hanging of Saddam Hussein, the new oil law has quietly been going through several drafts, and is now on the point of being presented to the cabinet and then the parliament in Baghdad. Its provisions are a radical departure from the norm for developing countries: under a system known as "production-sharing agreements", or PSAs, oil majors such as BP and Shell in Britain, and Exxon and Chevron in the US, would be able to sign deals of up to 30 years to extract Iraq's oil.

PSAs allow a country to retain legal ownership of its oil, but gives a share of profits to the international companies that invest in infrastructure and operation of the wells, pipelines and refineries. Their introduction would be a first for a major Middle Eastern oil producer. Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world's number one and two oil exporters, both tightly control their industries through state-owned companies with no appreciable foreign collaboration, as do most members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Opec.

Critics fear that given Iraq's weak bargaining position, it could get locked in now to deals on bad terms for decades to come. "Iraq would end up with the worst possible outcome," said Greg Muttitt of Platform, a human rights and environmental group that monitors the oil industry. He said the new legislation was drafted with the assistance of BearingPoint, an American consultancy firm hired by the US government, which had a representative working in the American embassy in Baghdad for several months.

I hope people read this blog before listening to Mr. Bush's speech tonight and judge just where the truth is, bear in mind if Bush's lips are moving the needle on the polygraph is most likely moving faster then the president's lips. No amount of troop surge can help hasten a speedy end to this war, it just insures that the iraqis will see us as occupiers and imperialists like the old european colonizers. Most od the oil flows and is processed and controlled in Shia and Kurdish areas of Iraq leaving the Sunnis distraught and angry and in a very anti American state of mind leading to only more bloodshed and more insurgency and 20,000 troops will not change that bear in mind also that what is not said by politicians or the White House is that if we send 20,000 troops Iran can easily send 40,000 insurgents over the border in a blink of an eye, so I respectfully implore you to bear this in mind for those of you that plan on listening to our pathetic President in his speech tonight