Iraq threatened to boycott Turkish companies and cancel contracts with Turkish firms in an intensifying row over moves to export oil from its northern Kurdish region, in remarks released Saturday.

Oil Minister Abdelkarim al-Luaybi said the planned export of oil from the three-province autonomous region was a "red line" and one that would increase instability in Iraq, arguing that Turkey was not acting in its interests.

Iraqi officials have summoned Turkeys charge daffaires to Baghdad over the announcement by the Kurdish region this month that its first shipment of crude oil sent directly to Turkey, without passing via pipelines controlled by the central government, had gone on sale, with more expected to follow.

"The Iraqi government will take a series of measures, including boycotting all Turkish companies and cancelling all current (government) contracts with Turkish companies" if Ankara allows oil from Kurdistan to be exported to international markets.

"Turkey must look at this case clearly.... It is not in the interests of Turkey to intervene on this subject.

"This case, for us as Iraqis, is a red line," Luaybi said in remarks released by the oil ministry.

Hawar Abdulrazaq