$1.3 billion law suit against AWB as it splits

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 threat of civil legal move came as Congress and industry figures predicted legal and congressional inquiries followed the release of the Cole Commission report into the AWB's kickbacks of $290 million to the Hussein regime.

Mr Foret said he has examined the Cole report and described it as "very helpful" for the class-action lawsuit.

"It's got a wealth of information in it," Mr Foret said today.

The lawsuit was originally filed in the US Federal Court in Washington DC earlier this year, but Mr Foret said it was withdrawn so the legal team could examine the Cole report.

"Quite frankly we knew the Cole Commission report was coming out and even though I think we knew what it was going to say, we wanted to see that," he said.

"The lawsuit will be re-filed, I hope, by the end of the year."

US Wheat Associates president Alan Tracey, the Australian Government for Commissioner Cole's report but said the Australian Wheat Board has a subsidiary in the United States and therefore could be liable under US law.

"The funds that came from the oil-for-food program moved through US banks," he said.

"There are a lot of connections here and possible violations of US law. "I'm not ready to allege any specific one, but we do believe some investigations are in order.

"But we will be seeking that now that we've passed this milestone of the report."

In Washington the expected new chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Democratic Tom Harkin, said the report would be helpful for his panel's inquiry.

"Now that Democrats are in the majority, we should have a better opportunity next year to get the facts out on the table and examine the extent of corruption in AWB's dealings under the United Nations oil-for-food program," Harkin said.

Republican Norm Coleman, who now heads the Senate's Homeland Security and Government Affairs investigative subcommittee, said he would examine whether AWB officials lied in previous testimony to the subcommittee.

Coleman will relinquish his chairmanship in January as Democrats take control of Congress, but he said he will consider pursuing the matter. Coleman praised the Cole report, which said the exporter probably broke Australian law by paying almost $300 million to Hussein's government under the UN program.

He also urged other countries to conduct similar investigations. The report raised questions whether actions by the exporter harmed US farmers, Coleman said.

In New York, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said files from the larger inquiry into oil-for-food "continue to be accessible and available to all judicial authorities investigating these allegations".

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Downer, said it was not surprising the US politicians were supporting their own nation's interests. "The fact is that the US congress and the US wheat associates are on America's side.

"This might come as a shock - but we're (the Government ) on Australia's side - they are our main competitors in the international wheat market," Mr Downer said on ABC radio.

"Don't embrace the American wheat growers. I mean, they are pumping the American line, they are expected to," he said. Mr Downer said there was no doubt AWB executives had done a terrible thing, but they had been caught.

"We have nailed them for what they have done, through the Cole Commission, and they have obviously put Australia in a difficult position and we are intensely angry about what AWB has done and I can imagine wheat growers are too."