(Adds comments from oil minister, background)
BAGHDAD, May 11 (Reuters) - The Iraqi Oil Ministry still considers contracts signed by the largely autonomous Kurdistan region with foreign oil firms illegal, despite news this week the ministry would allow exports from Kurdish fields, an official said on Monday.
"The Oil Ministry's position has not changed regarding the contracts signed by the Kurdish regional government with the foreign oil companies. Approving the Kurds to export does not mean approving the contracts they have signed," ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told Reuters.
On Sunday, the Oil Ministry said Iraq would begin exporting oil from fields in the Kurdish northern region, heralding a breakthrough in a bitter feud over control of Iraq's oil wealth.
News that oil from Kurdistan's Tawke and Taq Taq fields could finally be sold outside Iraq was seen as a possible sign that the Iraqi government in Baghdad, which has long opposed the Kurdish contracts, had changed course.
Jihad's comments came as Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani called the same contracts "illegal and illegitimate."
"All we are saying is that these contracts are illegal and illegitimate. The (Kurdistan) region does not have the right, nor does any province or anyone else, to sign contracts on behalf of Iraq without authorisation," Shahristani told state television.
"Any contracts must be submitted to the ministry," he said. (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; writing by Missy Ryan; editing by James Jukwey)