Australia extends Iraq oil-for-food inquiry

CANBERRA, Sep 21 (Reuters) An inquiry into whether Australia's monoploy wheat exporter AWB Ltd paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to Iraq has been extended by two months, Attorney General Philip Ruddock said today.

Judge Terence Cole, who is heading the inquiry, has been given until November 24 to submit his report from the previous deadline of September 29.

Mr Cole is examining whether AWB broke any laws over alleged payments of up to 222 million dollars in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's former government under the U.N. oil-for-food programme.

The latest extension, the third since the inquiry was set up, follows a court ruling this week which said the AWB had no legal right to keep confidential internal documents relating to the Iraqi wheat deals.

''Commissioner Cole can now continue his work,'' Ruddock said in a statement.

Australia's Federal Court this week said that AWB had sought to trick the United Nations in at least one wheat deal with the Iraqi Grains Board by trying to disguise the true nature and purpose of fees meant for transporting the wheat once it arrived in Iraq.

The Australian government began its investigation after a U.N.

report by former U.S. Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker in October 2005 accused the AWB of channelling money to Saddam's government through inflated trucking charges.

AWB executives initially denied any knowledge of the trucking fees, although internal AWB documents at the inquiry have shown that the group knew of the fee and at one stage may have earned profits from them.

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