Hussain Al Shahristani has been Iraq's oil minister since May 2006.

Today he is wrestling with a law to cover the oil industry which will satisfy Shias, Sunnis and Kurds.

He is also tackling the repeated sabotage of the country's oil pipelines. But not so long ago he experienced the brutality of Saddam Hussein's regime first-hand, suffering torture and spending ten years in solitary confinement before staging a remarkable escape.

He tells his story to Owen Bennett-Jones.

 Hussain Shahristani on The Interview

First broadcast 1st February 2008