Australian Prime Minister John Howard said today he was aware Saddam Hussein had broken sanctions in UN oil-for-food deals but did not know that any Australian company was involved.
Mr Howard was testifying to an official inquiry into reports the country's monopoly wheat exporter, AWB Ltd, had allegedly paid multi-million-dollar kickbacks to Saddam's Iraqi regime.
A 2005 UN report alleged that AWB was one of more than 2,000 firms that had paid kickbacks worth around €1.5 billion to Saddam's government through the UN-managed "oil-for-food" account.
"It was public knowledge that Iraq was rorting the oil-for-food programme. I was aware that Saddam had rorted the program," Mr Howard told the inquiry, using an Australian expression that means to defraud.
"There was absolutely no belief, anywhere in the government, at that time that AWB was anything other than a company of high reputation," said Mr Howard at the Sydney hearing.
The prime minister echoed earlier testimony from his foreign and trade ministers, saying he had not seen 21 diplomatic cables between 2000 and 2004 warning of possible AWB kickbacks.
Mr Howard is the first Australian leader to face such an investigation since 1983 when then prime minister Bob Hawke gave evidence to a spy scandal inquiry.
The inquiry, headed by former Supreme Court judge Terence Cole, has no political brief and can only recommend prosecution of the AWB and other companies and associated individuals if Australian laws were broken.