Russia denies links to UN oil-for-food corruption
Elsewhere, the head of Sweden's AB Volvo said the company had drawn the conclusion that payments to the regime were "the way to do business in Iraq." In Italy, a prominent politician accused in the scandal said he received "neither a drop of oil, nor a single cent."
Companies and officials from governments around the world have promised to investigate accusations of massive fraud that extended to 2,200 companies and individuals involved in the humanitarian programme.
Russia's objections were the strongest.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: "On a number of occasions, the documents shown to us were forged, in particular, they contained fake signatures of Russian officials."
The Independent Inquiry Committee issued a 623-page final report on corruption in the UN programme on Thursday. It accused companies and politicians of colluding with Saddam Hussein's regime to take $1.8 billion (1.49bn).
The investigators found that companies and individuals from 66 countries paid illegal kickbacks, and those paying illegal oil surcharges came from, or were registered in, 40 countries.
The programme, which ran from 1996 to 2003, allowed Iraq to sell oil provided most of the money went to buy humanitarian goods.
But Saddam, who could choose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of humanitarian goods, corrupted the programme by awarding contracts to and getting kickbacks from favoured buyers, the report says.
It targeted lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of Russia's Liberal Democratic Party, and Alexander Voloshin, who at the time was the Kremlin chief of staff. Both have denied wrongdoing.
Other "political beneficiaries" included British MP George Galloway; Roberto Formigoni, president of Italy's Lombardy region; and Jean-Bernard Merimee, France's former UN ambassador.
Mr Formigoni said he received "neither a drop of oil, nor a single cent."
Mr Merimee is under investigation in France and has denied wrongdoing.
Mr Galloway was accused of pocketing money in two separate reports this week, both citing former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz as a source.
US Republican Senator Norm Coleman used interviews with Aziz as evidence that Saddam's regime granted 23 million barrels of oil to Mr Galloway and his Mariam Appeal fund.
But French lawyers representing Aziz told Mr Galloway in Paris yesterday that Aziz never made a statement incriminating him.
Companies included Sweden's Volvo and AWB, formerly known as the Australian Wheat Board, which sold 6.8 million tons of wheat to Iraq.
Volvo chief executive, Leif Johansson, acknowledged it made payments through an agent to Iraqi authorities, but said officials there had not considered the payments bribery.
"We drew the conclusion that this was the way to do business in Iraq," he said.
"No one linked that to bribes."
