Iraq has agreed to provide cash-strapped Sudan with oil while deferring payment, Khartoum's investment minister said on Wednesday.

Sudan lost most of its own oil production, and the resulting export earnings, when South Sudan separated in July 2011.

"Iraq agreed to give Sudan an amount of oil and Sudan will be able to pay later," Investment Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters after returning from a two-day visit to Iraq.

He did not say how much oil the country would provide.

"Technical staff from (Sudan's) ministry of oil are there and today finalising details of the agreement," he said.

Iraq is a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), with output of about 3.5 million barrels of oil per day.

In April, a senior official in Sudan's oil ministry told AFP the country was producing about 130,000 barrels per day, down from around 470,000 barrels of crude output before South Sudan's split following an overwhelming referendum vote for independence under a peace deal that ended a 22-year civil war.

The official, Awad Abdul Fatah, said his country was importing close to one million barrels a month of diesel and other products to meet its needs.