-Iraq's Kurdistan will keep pumping its share of national oil exports until September 15, extending a deadline for the central government to make disputed payments to companies working in the Kurdish region, Kurdish sources said on Saturday.

"We decided to extend the deadline for pumping crude to September 15 as a goodwill gesture, and to give Baghdad more time to resolve the payment issue," one source with Kurdistan's natural resources ministry told Reuters.

The extension signaled tensions were easing in Baghdad's long-running feud with Kurdistan over oil rights, territory and power-sharing, a dispute that is testing the country's uneasy federal union.

In April Kurdistan halted exports, saying Baghdad had not made payments to companies working there, but it restarted shipments on August 7 with a warning they could be halted again in a month if there were no payments.

Iraq says Kurdistan's oil shipments have fluctuated around 100,000 to 120,000 barrels per day since they restarted, below the 175,000 bpd that Baghdad says was agreed with Kurdistan.

"We want to send a message to Baghdad that we in Kurdistan are keen to help boost Iraq's exports. If the reply on the message was positive, then we will increase export levels from the region," the source said.