AWB

DISGRACED wheat exporter AWB will be stripped of its 60-year monopoly under a plan to be considered by cabinet today.

Senior government sources have confirmed a transition plan that will involve establishing a new authority with powers to grant multiple export licences, allowing new players into the wheat market.

A $1.3 billion class action against the AWB on behalf of US wheat farmers is being prepared by a Washington law firm.

L. Palmer Foret, a Washington DC-based lawyer, said the damages could exceed $US1 billion ($1.29 billion).

At the same time AWB has announced it will spin off its wheat exporting unit as it pre-empts a possible government move to strip it of its monopoly after an inquiry reported on illegal payments to Iraq, Australian newspapers said on Wednesday.

The Cole report on the AWB kickbacks is to be released today, but has failed to find evidence to support claims Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, former trade minister Mark Vaile knew about the inflated "trucking" fees.

He also is also expected to find none of the dozens of departmental officers assisting AWB's wheat export trade knew that the company had capitulated to Iraq's demands for kickbacks.

Cole is expected to provide forensic accounts of the knowledge and actions of certain public servants who dealt with AWB and its Iraq wheat sales in his report into the $290 million oil-for-food scandal, to be tabled in Parliament today.

He is expected to draw conclusions, which the Government will argue negates the Opposition's claim that the Cole inquiry's terms of reference were manipulated, drastically limiting scrutiny of the Government.