Iraq wants to alter signature bonus for Rumaila

* Change would mirror other contracts

* Soft loans need parliamentary approval, official says

BAGHDAD, July 20 (Reuters) - Iraq's Oil Ministry has asked British oil major BP (BP.L: Quote) and Chinese partner CNPC to turn their signature bonus for Rumaila oilfield into an unrecoverable but lower payment rather than a soft loan, an Iraqi official said on Tuesday.

"We have asked from them (BP and CNPC) to convert the $500 million recoverable to $100 million unrecoverable... in line with the rest of the contracts," Abdul-Mahdy al-Ameedi, director of the Oil Ministry's licensing office, told Reuters.

"If it stayed as a soft loan, we have to get parliament's approval for it, and there is no (functioning) parliament right now," he said.

In January, BP and CNPC paid a $500 million signature bonus due on the contract they won to develop Iraq's 17-billion-barrel supergiant Rumaila oilfield. [ID:nLDE60E1KR]

Iraq held a general election in March that produced no outright winner and as yet no new government. Parliament has held its first session but is not functioning in the absence of a new government.

Iraq agreed in April to slash signature bonuses on two oilfield development deals and turned them into unrecoverable payments rather than soft loans. [ID:nRAS442115]