* Exports stopped last year over who pays foreign oil firms
* Recent comments signal thaw in row
(Adds oil minister saying Baghdad will not pay oil firms)
By Ahmed Rasheed
BAGHDAD, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Iraq expects to resume oil exports from its northern Kurdistan region in the "coming days", Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani told reporters on Wednesday.
It was still unclear who would pay foreign oil firms developing fields in the largely autonomous Kurdistan region, which signed deals with the companies independently, a move the central government in Baghdad considers illegal.
Kurdish leaders had targeted exports of about 100,000 barrels per day, but flows were stopped last year due to the row with Baghdad over the production sharing contracts.
"God willing we are going to announce the resumption of exports from the Kurdish region in the coming days," Shahristani told reporters at a journalists' seminar in Baghdad.
He said the resumption of exports was not dependent on resolving the dispute over the contracts with foreign oil firms, and that Baghdad had not agreed to pay them. It insists Kurdistan pays them from its annual cut of the national budget.
In the Kurdish capital of Arbil, Kurdistan Deputy Prime Minister Azad Barwari said there was an "understanding" with Baghdad that the central government would pay oil firms working in Kurdistan.
Comments by Shahristani on Tuesday that exports would resume in the near future sent shares in Norwegian oil firm DNO, a developer of an oilfield in Kurdistan, soaring.
Iraq signed a series of major oil deals at two contract auctions last year, which may vault it into one of world's top three oil producers from 11th currently. (Additional reporting by Shamal Aqrawi in Arbil, writing by Mohammed Abbas; editing by James Jukwey)