France says US claims over Iraqi bribes "unverified"

PARIS (AFP) - The accusations made in an official US report that French businessmen and politicians received bribes from Saddam Hussein in order to influence government policy in Iraq are "unverified," the French foreign ministry said.
"It is important that we check very closely the truth behind these claims, because as far as we understand it the accusations ... are unverified either with the persons concerned or the authorities of the countries concerned," spokesman Herve Ladsous said.
According to the report drawn up by the Iraq Survey Group, the former Iraqi president paid millions of dollars in cash and petrol export vouchers to elicit help in his bid to end the UN sanctions regime on Iraq. France and Russia were the main targets because of their seats on the UN Security Council.
The French recipients included Patrick Maugein -- a businessman believed by Saddam to have links with President Jacques Chirac -- former interior minister Charles Pasqua, and the Iraqi-French Friendship Society, the report said.
The French Socialist party was also said to have received one million dollars in 1988.
"Iraq sought out individuals whom they believed were in a position to influence French policy," the report's author chief weapons inspector Charles Duelfer concluded.
Pasqua and Maugein have both denied the allegations, which were first aired in a leaked report to a Baghdad newspaper in January.