MOSCOW- Iraq expects Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin to visit Baghdad for talks on Kurdistan oil contracts, Russia's TASS news agency cited Iraqi envoy to Moscow, Haidar Mansour Hadi, as saying on Sunday.

Russian state oil major Rosneft signed a deal this year to help Kurdistan to develop its gas reserves and build a gas pipeline, expanding the company's dominance in the oil-rich Iraqi region where an independence referendum had sparked tensions with Baghdad.

(Reporting by Denis Pinchuk Editing by David Goodman) ((denis.pinchuk@thomsonreuters.com; +74957751242;))