"Russian companies signed contracts in Iraq under international law, and I know that American legal firms helped write these contracts. So I would like to know how these contracts could be put into question," Kudrin said, speaking at a press conference following a meeting at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Kudrin also said he expected any new government in Iraq to honour the country's debt commitments to Russia, and that he did not believe political differences between the United States and Russia over the war in Iraq would have a lasting effect on economic relations.

"We consider that the US action in Iraq is incorrect, but I hope that this will not have an influence on our bilateral relationships," Kudrin said.

Concerning the potential negative impact on Russia's economic growth from the Iraq crisis and the subsequent volatility of oil prices, Kudrin said he did not anticipate slower growth this year.

"In the past years, we have developed financial instruments to reduce our exposure to fluctuating oil prices," while a supplementary financial reserve had also been created to limit any impact, he said.

"So we believe there will be no negative impact on the Russian economy," Kudrin said.

Nikolai Tokarev, general manager of state-run oil firm Zarubezhneft, said earlier he expected Washington and London to cut Moscow out of any postwar carve-up of Iraq's crude reserves.

"We're clearly going to have to cut our losses on anything we have there and anything we could have had," Tokarev told the daily Vremya Novostei.

"The Americans haven't gone into this war intending to share with anyone. It's a war trophy," he said.

Tokarev estimated his own firm's "concrete losses" in Iraq at 150-180 million dollars (140-170 million euros), not counting lost revenue from subsequent projects.

He added that Russia's top oil company LUKoil, was unlikely to receive any favourable treatment either.

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