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Halliburton representatives testified that the Halliburton employees being investigated for taking kickbacks under the LOGCAP troop support contract were not managers but were "administrative people." Yet according to the Justice Department, a Halliburton manager has now been indicted for this kickback scheme.

Japanese officials scrambled to find information on the kidnapping of a 44-year-old Japanese security specialist working as a consultant for Hart Security Ltd., a Cyprus-based security contractor.

Like many other Iraqis, businessmen invariably make then-and-now comparisons with Saddam Hussein. Saddam ran his own massive corruption of the UN oil-for-food program and he and his cronies regularly demanded a cut of any new business or contract. But Iraqi businessman said: "I'd say that about 10 per cent of business was corrupt under Saddam. Now it's about 95 per cent. We used to have one Saddam, now we have 25 of them."

Custer Battles is under investigation by the Department of Defense for allegedly overcharging the government millions by making up invoices for work never done, equipment never received, and guards who didn't exist.

Brigadier Hussan Zuyad, chief of the Iraqi National Guard for Al Muthanna province, said the arrival of Australian troops would give him an opportunity to evaluate their equipment. "We want many things because we are really starting from the ground rebuilding our army," he said.

Documents, including a Pentagon audit, found $8 million in overpricing in the sale of agricultural products to Saddam Hussein by a company tied to Prince Bandar bin Mohammed bin Abdulrahm al-Saud.

The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool has emerged as one of the companies involved in Iraq oil-for-food deals now under investigation by a U.S. congressional committee probing the United Nations aid program, which Saddam Hussein manipulated to skim off billions of dollars for himself.

German industry has come under the scrutiny of UN investigators. As far back as October, UN staffers with the investigation contacted Germany's Foreign Ministry in Berlin and submitted a list containing 50 German companies. According to government sources, that list "also included some very well-known companies."

Pentagon officials now say the costs for stricter safeguards on price information, cost accountability and conflicts of interest will cost $25 million to $75 million just three weeks after Army said there would be no "significant costs" in restructuring the contract for the Future Combat System.

Government officials assigned to oversee a contract with CACI used to provide civilian interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison all but abdicated their responsibility, leaving it to the private contractor to set terms for its work, according to a congressional report.

Federal record-keeping on the contracts was so poor that there were not enough data to determine how many contractors are working in Iraq or how many had been killed there, a GAO report said.

After reports of U.S. pressure, Philippines clarifies that call for Filipino workers employed by contractors to leave Iraq is only voluntary. "We are ready to implement mass repatriation if it becomes necessary, but the government is only undertaking voluntary repatriation of workers from Iraq" said Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas.

The chief executive officer of BNP Paribas-North America acknowledged the bank had committed "avoidable errors" in handling some of the vast program's accounts, but said an extensive internal probe had uncovered no outright fraud related to questionable transfers.

For now, the United States remains well positioned, at least when it comes to energy supplies. The proven reserves in the Middle East make it the expected primary global supplier of crude oil. Iraq, where the United States has forcefully established a beachhead, has proven oil reserves of between 78 and 112 billion barrels.

Deficit-plagued Washington's checkbook remains open to military contractors and nearly all of Europe's leading defense firms are pressing for more U.S. military business.

Contractors are reaping rewards of a surge in defense spending from a little over $300 billion before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States to about $500 billion now.

Chalabi is taking over the ministry at a critical time. It must make decisions on which companies get preference for oil sales, which contracts are honored and which will be renegotiated. The ministry also faces frequent sabotage against its oil pipelines.

Cotecna Inspection S.A., the Swiss company that monitored the shipment of humanitarian goods to Iraq under the oil-for-food program, has accused the committee investigating the program for the United Nations of making "false, misleading and malicious" statements.