TEHRAN Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh has turned down reports that his ministry was intending to overhaul foreign buyback deals, the Persian daily ***** Hayat-e No ***** said here Wednesday.

"I have already announced that we are not intending to review buyback deals under any conditions," the paper quoted him as saying.

According to the daily, Zangeneh however did not rule out making changes in some articles of foreign buyback agreements. The aim, he said, is "to improve them," adding that a "total overhaul is out of the question."

The Iranian Parliament has permitted the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to sign up to 7.5 billion dollars in foreign buyback deals during the current Iranian fiscal year (started March 21) and has extended earlier permits, Zangeneh said.

The oil minister also denounced those who have criticized his ministry for encouraging buyback deals, arguing that his ministry has the Majlis' green light.

"The legislature, namely the Majlis, has issued permission to the Oil Ministry to enter into buyback deals. Thus, there should be no problem in this respect whatsoever," he said.

Buyback deals have come under extensive criticism by some sector in Iran, claiming that they would the door to a sell-off of national wealth.

Under a buyback program, a foreign investor is to recover his investment from products produced. Buybacks, though largely unpopular with foreign firms, were resorted to in the mid-1990s in a bid to help the Iranian government skirt constitutional bans on foreign ventures and attract much-needed capital to revamp the ageing energy sector which was damaged by the Iraqi imposed war and ongoing U.S. sanctions.

Since 1997 Iran has pushed for greater foreign investment, and has attracted some 11.5 billion dollars in foreign buyback deals in its oil and gas sectors.

Contracts worth over $7 billion have already been sealed to develop the first eight of South Pars' 25 phases, but delays in project implementation have cropped up.

Negotiations are continuing for several other buyback oil deals with Spanish and Italian companies emerging as frontrunners.

Other bidders are Royal Dutch/Shell, Eni, Totalfinaelf and BP Amoco.