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 SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Prime Minister John Howard on Monday rejected claims that his government was guilty of negligence for allowing Australia's monopoly wheat exporter to pay multimillion-dollar kickbacks to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Howard made the comments ahead of the release of a government-commissioned report into payments by the Australian Wheat Board, now known as AWB Ltd., under the U.N.'s corruption-riddled Iraq oil-for-food program.
The media have predicted the report will recommend criminal charges against several AWB executives, while Howard's government is likely to escape formal censure over the scandal.
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