The Iraqi government has sent a draft oil law to parliament, a major step towards meeting one of the political benchmarks Washington has set for Baghdad. The announcement by Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani on Wednesday came on the eve of a major conference in Egypt where industrialized powers and Iraq's neighbors will discuss how to stabilize Iraq and seek reforms in return for reconstruction. The draft is crucial to regulating how wealth from Iraq's oil reserves would be shared by its sectarian and ethnic groups.It was passed by cabinet in February and hailed at the time by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as a pillar of Iraqi unity. But a dispute between the central government and autonomous, oil-rich Kurdistan over control of the world's third largest oil reserves delayed its submission.