Iraq tracks looted cash

The Iraqi Government is expected to issue an arrest warrant for former Defence Minister Hazem al-Shaalan in connection with the disappearance of more than US$1 billion ($1.42 billion), a senior corruption investigator said.

It was reported yesterday that the Iraqi Army was so ill-equipped in the face of well-armed insurgents because its entire procurement budget had been siphoned off. Weapons were either never supplied or were found to be useless.

Radi al-Radhi, the head of Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, said: "I expect the court will issue the warrants in the next week, for Shaalan and other senior officials". Saying that between US$1.3 billion and US$2.3 billion was missing, he added: "What Shaalan and his ministry were responsible for is possibly the largest robbery in the world". Up to 50 officials would eventually be brought to justice, he said.

Shaalan, formerly a businessman in London, is now living in Jordan and denies any wrongdoing. He and other Iraqi officials say that everything they did during the eight months when the alleged thefts took place between June 2004 and February 2005 was with the knowledge of the US military and American civilian advisers.

- INDEPENDENT