WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iraq's oil production is now over 2.5 million barrels a day, a record since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the country's oil minister said.

Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani said on US television that Iraq hoped to be producing 4.3 million barrels by 2010 and to be challenging Saudi Arabia as the world's largest producer by 2015.

Production was about 2.5 million dollars a day when President Saddam Hussein was deposed by US-led forces in 2003. It then collapsed to virtually nothing and has been slow to rebuild because of insurgent attacks and other problems.

In an interview with CNN television, Shahristani emphasized that only one month and three days after the Iraqi government took office "we have been able to break a record".

"Today's oil production was in excess of 2.5 million barrel a day. And that's a record since the fall of Saddam's regime in April 2003," he told CNN's "Late Edition" programme...