CAIRO, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Iraq's oil ministry on Thursday denied media reports citing Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar as saying an agreement is imminent with the OPEC+ group over increasing Iraq's crude oil exports, the ministry spokesman said.

"The oil minister did not make these comments and did not meet the newspaper's reporter," spokesman Asim Jihad told Reuters, referring to state-owned daily newspaper Al-Sabah. The comments were also carried by state news agency INA but have since been deleted.

"Iraq is committed to the OPEC+ agreement and is working with OPEC and non-OPEC producers on confronting the challenges facing global oil markets, including the spread of COVID-19 which caused a decline in global oil demand," he said. (Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; editing by Jason Neely)