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 SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Prime Minister John Howard told a government inquiry on Thursday he never saw nearly a dozen diplomatic cables warning that Australia's monopoly wheat exporter might have been paying millions of dollars in alleged bribes to Saddam Hussein under the U.N.'s discredited oil-for-food program.
Howard was the most senior of three government ministers to testify this week at a so-called Royal Commission into alleged bribes paid by the Australian Wheat Board, now known as AWB Ltd. His testimony, which lasted just under an hour, came as a poll published this week showed his approval rating slipping.
Earlier this week, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister testified they knew nothing about the alleged multimillion dollar corruption until U.N. officials began investigating the company.
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