Maverick MP hits back at Saddam oil charge

British MP and Iraq war opponent George Galloway has pledged that he will give a "bloody good hiding" to a US Senate committee over accusations that he was granted allocations for millions of barrels of oil from Saddam Hussein's regime.

Galloway said he would fly to Washington next week to defend himself in person against allegations about the UN's oil-for-food programme published by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow denied claims in the committee's report that Iraqi documents and interviews with senior figures in Saddam's regime showed he was granted allocations of oil under the programme.

He denounced the committee for publishing the claims without giving him the opportunity to answer the allegations.

Galloway will face the committee next week after its Republican chairman, Norm Coleman, invited him to appear. "I'm going to call them a bunch of liars," he said.

The committee's report said Galloway was named in documents from Iraq's Ministry of Oil.

But a spokesman for the committee confirmed it had no evidence Galloway benefited financially from the alleged allocation of 20 million barrels of oil.

"We have presented the evidence that the allocations were granted," said Tom Steward, a spokesman for Senator Coleman. "That was confirmed by the senior Iraqi Government officials we spoke to. They knew he was being rewarded for his support for the regime."

- Independent