Iran will not have problems financing energy projects, the caretaker oil minister said in recent remarks, despite US pressure and UN sanctions.

Iran is enjoying windfall oil revenues because of high crude prices but foreign firms are increasingly reluctant to do business with the Islamic Republic because of sanctions imposed in a row with the West over the country's nuclear ambitions.

'In the oil industry, we will not face financing problems. Of course there are some limitations in this regard, but they can be solved,' Jahan-e Eqtesad newspaper quoted acting Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari as saying.

Nozari's remarks echoed those in July of the former minister whom he replaced this month, Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh.

The US, leading efforts to isolate Iran over an atomic programme it fears is aimed at building bombs, has urged foreign firms not to deal with Iran. Tehran insists its nuclear plans are purely civilian.

An Iranian official said in May Societe Generale had pulled out of a $5 billion project to develop part of the South Pars gas field due to US pressure. The official said Statoil and Total were also under pressure.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's move to replace the oil minister this month was seen by some analysts as a bid to assert more control over the ministry. No official reason was given.

Some analysts said Vaziri-Hamaneh could also be paying the price for a lack of interest by energy firms in the latest bid round for oil and gas blocks. They said the move could make it harder for foreign firms to invest in Iran because Ahmadinejad's government has tended to favour Iranian firms for work in Iran.

Based on Iranian law, the president has three months to propose a new minister to parliament for approval.

In an open letter to the president, unnamed 'oil experts from the oil ministry' criticised Ahmadinejad for taking too long to propose a new minister, saying 'uncertainties in the Oil Ministry could lead to harmful consequences.'

'Following up agreements and signed contracts with foreign firms ... and following up negotiations with neighbouring states to develop joint fields ... are only some of the cases in which there will be no or little progress until an oil minister has been chosen,' Mehr news agency quoted the letter as saying. Reuters