BEIJING, April 12 -- Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer denied yesterday seeing a string of diplomatic cables warning the Australian Government that the country's monopoly wheat exporter was paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein.

    Downer was the second minister to appear at the inquiry into allegations the Australian Wheat Board, now known as AWB Ltd., paid US$220 million to Saddam's government to secure grain contracts worth more than US$2.3 billion between 1997 and 2003 under the U.N.'s oil-for-food program.

    And like Trade Minister Mark Vaile on Monday, Downer ¡ª in a written statement to the inquiry made public as he took the stand ¡ª repeatedly denied having seen a string of warnings sent by diplomats to Canberra about AWB's possible corruption.

    Prime Minister John Howard said he would provide a written statement on what he knew about the scandal.

    Howard, a staunch Bush administration ally who sent 2,000 Australian troops to join the 2003 invasion of Iraq, will likely be questioned under oath at the inquiry later this week.

    That would make Howard the first prime minister to appear at such a hearing since former Labor leader Bob Hawke testified at a 1983 inquiry into Australia's intelligence agencies.

    The AWB wasn't alone. In a damning report last year, former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker said some 2,200 companies and individuals were involved in the corruption.

    But the AWB, which until 1999 was government-owned, was the biggest supplier of humanitarian goods to the program, which was set up to help ordinary Iraqis cope with crippling U.N. sanctions slapped on Baghdad after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

    In February, AWB managing director Andrew Lindberg resigned amid mounting pressure.  

(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)