Iraq says trade ties with Australia to resume

BAGHDAD, Feb 27 (Reuters) Iraq will resume trade ties with Australia after families of Iraqi bodyguards shot by Australian security men by mistake last year accepted compensation from Australia, a statement quoting the trade minister said on Tuesday.

Minister Abdul Falah al-Sudany said he had accepted an invitation to visit Australia to ''turn the page of the past'' and discuss new tenders. No date was set yet.

Australia had been Iraq's dominant wheat supplier for years, a position that has been gradually eroded after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and after a scandal over kickbacks from Australia's monopoly wheat supplier to the former regime of Saddam Hussein under the oil-for-food programme.

Last June, Australian security guards protecting a trade delegation in Baghdad mistakenly opened fire on the bodyguards of the trade minister, killing one and wounding others.

Iraq, one of the world's biggest wheat buyers, imports around 3 million tonnes of wheat a year to help feed a population of 27 million people.

REUTERS SY RN0008