The Bazian oil refinery is just the kind of Iraqi government project the US hopes to see more of in the near future, Anna Fifield reports.

Appearing as a sudden flourish of pipes, cooling towers and storage tanks in the arid landscape surrounding the northern Kurdish city of Suleimaniya, the $64m (€48m, £37m) Bazian project will process 20,000 barrels of crude oil a day when it begins operating in June 2009.