The UN’s report on the oil-for-food programme for Saddam Hussein’s Iraq drew widespread denials, terse dismissals and protestations of innocence yesterday, but also pledges to investigate from some of the 2,200 companies cited and countries with citizens named.

RUSSIAN officials yesterday furiously denied allegations linking companies and politicians to corruption in the UN oil-for-food programme for Iraq, saying that the report implicating them relied upon forgeries and false statements.

HALF of the 4,500 companies in the UN oil-for-food programme, including Volvo and Daimler Chrysler, paid €1.5 billion in kickbacks and illicit surcharges to Saddam Hussein’s government, a UN report has concluded.