Iraqi documents allege British MP on Saddam's payroll

LONDON - A leading British anti-war politician rubbished a report that claimed he had received £375,000 ($1,071,335) a year in payoffs from the Iraqi government and said he would sue for libel.

The Daily Telegraph said a secret memorandum found in Iraq's looted Foreign Ministry showed that George Galloway received at least that amount per year from Iraq under its UN-backed Oil-For-Food Programme and that he had asked for more money.

"The only thing extremely clear about this story is that it is clearly false and it will be demonstrated in the courts of law as false," Galloway told BBC Radio.

"No such thing ever happened," he said, adding that the Telegraph was "in big trouble". Galloway, a member of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party, could not be immediately reached for further comment.

According to the Telegraph, the memorandum - sent to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by his spy chief - said that Galloway had asked for a bigger cut of Iraq's oil exports under the UN programme at a meeting with an Iraqi spy in December 1999.

Galloway, 48, said he had never, to his knowledge, met an Iraqi intelligence agent, and that the reported Boxing Day encounter never took place.

Galloway, a colourful member of parliament (MP) and one of the most outspoken critics of the war against Iraq, has been lambasted by parts of the British press for his tireless opposition to military action.

The Scottish legislator has been dubbed "MP for Baghdad Central" and has been slammed by fellow parliamentarians for calling Blair and US President George W Bush "wolves" for attacking Iraq.

Galloway has long been a campaigner against UN sanctions on Iraq. He met Saddam in Baghdad last year.

He spoke at London's massive anti-war rally ahead of the attack on Iraq, at a time when Blair was under heavy fire from his party and the public for his hardline stand on Iraq. Public opinion has turned in Blair's favour since the war.

Galloway did say he had penned a letter that was found in the files along with the alleged secret memorandum. That letter stated that Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zureikat was the representative of Galloway's Mariam Appeal organisation in Iraq.

The Mariam Appeal, which campaigns against sanctions on Iraq, was named after a young Iraqi girl Galloway flew to Scotland in 1998 for treatment for leukaemia.

Galloway said the memorandum may have been forged, or planted as part of what he called a "carpet bombing" campaign by the British press against him.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war