Reuters reported that Iraq has tightened security around oil infrastructure and oilfields in the south in response to intelligence suggesting al Qaeda and other insurgent groups plan to attack oil facilities.

Mr Ali Al Maliki head of the municipal security committee in the southern oil hub of Basra said that the information indicated that al Qaeda in Iraq and Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party were switching their sights to economic targets and oil companies.

Mr Maliki said that we have received intelligence information of a plan to target oil facilities, including oilfields, by al Qaeda and Baathist insurgent groups.

Emerging threats against oil infrastructure represent a challenge to Iraqi security forces following the formal end of US combat operations in August and a fall in US troop numbers to 50,000. The remaining US troops will withdraw completely by the end of 2011 under a bilateral security pact.

Iraq is looking to its massive oil resources for its future stability and prosperity as it emerges from the worst of the sectarian violence set off after the 2003 US led invasion but it still confronts a resilient Sunni Islamist insurgency.

Deals struck with international oil majors, if successfully developed, could quadruple its output capacity to Saudi levels of 12 million barrels per day in 6 to 7 years and allow it to rebuild after decades of war, sanctions and neglect. But attacks against international oil companies are one of the many risks to the plan.

Tensions have mounted since an inconclusive election six months ago as Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish politicians bicker over positions and power in the next government and attacks by insurgents against security forces appear to be on the increase.

(Sourced from Reuters)