DOHA, (Reuters) – A deal between Iraq’s central government in Baghdad and its semiautonomous northern Kurdish region to restart oil exports could come within days, Iraq’s deputy oil minister said on Tuesday.

“It could be within days from now,” deputy oil minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi said on the sidelines of an energy event in Qatar’s capital. “We hope to start exports soon.”

Luaibi also said Iraq aims to export 2.3 million barrels per day of crude in 2011.