SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Monday he had been asked to make a written statement to an official inquiry into the payment of sanctions-busting bribes to Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Howard said he had agreed to provide the statement and would be prepared to appear before the inquiry if asked to do so.
The inquiry is probing the payment by the nation's wheat exporter AWB of 220 million US dollars in kickbacks to obtain contracts under the oil-for-food programme during sanctions against the former Iraqi dictator's regime.
04/10/2006 00:11 GMT