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Europeans accused in oil-for-food report NICK WADHAMS Associated Press UNITED NATIONS - A U.S. Senate committee probing corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program released new evidence purporting to show that two leading politicians from Britain and France received vouchers for millions of barrels of Iraqi oil in exchange for their support of Saddam Hussein's regime. Citing contracts, letters and interviews with former Iraqi leaders, the probe set out evidence Wednesday to back the claim that British lawmaker George Galloway and former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua accepted oil allocations under the scheme. Galloway and Pasqua have denied any wrongdoing in...

Charles Pasqua, a former French minister of interior, has emerged as one of the highest-ranking targets of the widening investigations into the Iraq oil-for-food scandal. United Nations, US and French investigators are examining Iraqi documents that show officials in Baghdad were instructed to transfer his lucrative oil allocations to an offshore company, to shield him from criticism. Mr Pasqua's alleged role has emerged as inquiries turn to the role of foreign governments in the corruption within the humanitarian aid programme. France and Russia, which opposed the 2003 invasion, have long been accused in the US of being too close to...

UN inspector 'took £60,000 Iraq bribes' Iraqi oil officials have accused a United Nations inspector of taking almost £60,000 in bribes from Saddam Hussein's regime as his henchmen and foreign business partners siphoned millions from the UN's oil-for-food programme, it was reported yesterday. An inquiry by officials in the State Oil Marketing Organisation - a body which, under Saddam, was a key player in schemes that allegedly diverted billions in oil revenues from the UN-run programme - accused an inspector contracted through the Dutch company Saybolt of falsifying documents in return for bribes, the Wall Street Journal reported. Saybolt was...

UN works on weekend to adjust Iraq oil, food plan By Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS, March 21 (Reuters) - Security Council members decided on Friday to work through the weekend on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's plan to put him in charge of a humanitarian program for Iraq that uses oil revenues to pay for food, medicine and other civilian goods. A resolution is expected to emerge on Monday after discussions among Middle East experts of the 15 council members sitting on a council committee set up to monitor the now-suspended oil-for-food program. The plan was created to ease the impact...