Australian Prime Minister John Howard agreed to testify at an inquiry into sanctions-busting bribes paid to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq as his government was dragged deeper into a growing scandal. The inquiry is probing the payment by national wheat exporter AWB of 220 million US dollars in kickbacks to obtain 2.3 billion dollars in contracts under the UN’s oil-for-food programme. Howard’s revelation that he had been asked to provide a written statement to former judge Terence Cole, who is presiding over the inquiry, came on the day Trade Minister Mark Vaile appeared before the commission. Full Story