Howard denies Australia in Iraq for oil

Australian Prime Minister John Howard insisted oil had nothing to do with Australia’s involvement in the Iraq war, contradicting his defence minister who said protecting Iraq’s oil supplies was one of his country’s motivations for keeping troops there.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson’s inclusion of global energy security as a reason for keeping troops in Iraq is likely to add weight to war protesters’ arguments that the 2003 US-led invasion was more an oil grab than a bid to uncover Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, which proved to be non-existent.