* Iraqi oil ministry says Kurdish exports to begin
* Kurdish minister says received oil ministry's permission
* Head of parliament committee says step toward oil law
(Adds comment by head of Oil and Gas committee, background)
By Ahmed Rasheed and Sherko Raouf
BAGHDAD/SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, May 10 (Reuters) - The Iraqi oil ministry will begin exporting oil from fields in semi-autonomous Kurdistan, an official said on Sunday, heralding a breakthrough in a bitter feud over control of Iraq's oil wealth.
Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told Reuters that once fields in the northern Kurdish region had been connected to the national export pipelines, "the Iraqi Oil Ministry will start exporting crude extracted from some oil fields in Kurdistan."
"These quantities will increase Iraqi export capacity and all revenues will go to state coffers. The Ministry supports any steps to increase Iraqi output and export levels," he said, but declined to comment on when the exports would begin.
Jihad's comments came after the Kurdish natural resources minister said he had got the green light from Baghdad to begin the first official exports from Kurdish fields.
"Today I received an email message from the Iraqi Oil Ministry sending us their approval for the Kurdish government to export oil through the Iraqi pipelines to Ceyhan (in Turkey)," Ashti Hawrami told Reuters by telephone from outside Iraq.
On Friday the Kurdish government had announced that oil exports from its Tawke field would begin on June 1, saying they would start at an initial rate of 60,000 barrels per day (bpd).
It also said that 40,000 bpd of exports from another field, Taq Taq, would begin, travelling by truck and through an Iraq-Turkey export pipeline. It said oil exports would be sold by Iraq's national State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO).
But there had been no immediate confirmation from the Shi'ite-Arab led government in Baghdad, which has long deemed as illegal deals that Kurds have made with foreign firms.
The oil feud is part of a larger dispute between minority Kurds and majority Arabs over resources, land and power that has held up national energy legislation and cast a shadow over a country struggling to emerge from six years of bloodshed.
Yet Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani is facing increasing pressure to increase sluggish oil output, now running at around 2.3-2.4 million bpd, and turn around an industry in dire need of major investment after decades of sanctions, neglect and war.
COMPROMISE AROUND THE CORNER?
Iraq, which relies on oil imports for more than 95 percent of its state revenues, needs exports more than ever as it tries to stretch a budget undercut by a plunge in oil prices.
Ali Hussain Balou, a Kurd who is head of parliament's Oil and Gas Committee, said the export news boded well for long-stalled efforts to pass national energy legislation, which will set out terms for investing in Iraq's oil sector.
He said the Oil Ministry's move to permit exports amounted to implicit endorsement of production-sharing deals the Kurds have signed with foreign firms. Baghdad, on principle, has ruled out such agreements in favour of fee-based service contracts.
This "will contribute to reaching common ground on the passage of the oil and gas legislation. It's a positive step forward."
In a statement posted on the Kurdish government's website, Hawrami said the Oil Ministry had sent two letters saying that exports from Tawke and Taq Taq "should be expedited."
He said the letters were signed by a deputy oil minister.
On Sunday Jihad said there was a joint technical team, including Kurdish and Arab officials, that would conclude preparations for the launch of Kurdish oil exports.
Until now Baghdad's refusal to open the national pipeline to Kurdish oil exports has meant oil from Kurdistan, largely independent since 1991, has gone only to supply a small Kurdish market. Small amounts have been smuggled abroad.
Kurdish officials, who estimate there are oil reserves of at least 40-45 billion barrels in the area now recognised as Kurdistan, have meanwhile struck deals with firms including Toronto-listed Addax Petroleum and Norway's DNO International, which is developing Tawke.
British oil explorer Heritage Oil said last week it had discoverd up to 4.2 billion barrels of oil with the drilling of a new well in the Miran West field in Kurdistan and hoped to be in production later this year. (Additional reporting by Shamal Aqrawi in Arbil; Writing by Missy Ryan; Editing by Greg Mahlich)