The Iraqi minister of planning and development cooperation pledged on Thursday to resign "one hour" after passing the controversial oil and gas bill into law, if no radical amendments were introduced to current draft, Voices of Iraq (VOI) reports.

"I will resign one hour after passing oil and gas draft law, in case no changes were made to the articles concerning granting oil contracts by the central government only and not by the regions, and partnership contracts" Minister Ali Baban told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq.

Baban had already objected to the articles of the law, and said that he would resign if the Parliament passed it.

"We, a number of ministers, oil experts, and lawmen, seek to mobilize the Iraqi people and make them aware that this bill, if passed, would have a negative influence on the Iraqi oil wealth," the minister of planning added.

Minister Baban called for conducting "a referendum on this law, or distributing copies of the draft to all Iraqis to be aware of the bill articles."

The minister called on non-governmental organizations to hold seminars and conferences "to increase people's awareness of the dangers of this law", and pointed out that the coming days "will witness meetings among the leaders of political blocs on the draft law of oil and gas."