Russian firms bought about 30 per cent of the oil sold under Iraq's now-defunct oil-for-food programme, according to a UN investigator's extensive list of companies that did business with Saddam Hussein's government.

Paul Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve chairman who heads the probe, released on Thursday a 300-page roster, the most comprehensive to date, of 4,500 firms that either sold goods to Iraq or bought its oil.

Volcker said the names on the list did not reflect on the legality of their transactions. However, he said this did not mean ``that some of those companies were not corrupt''. Russia had dominated a separate United States-compiled list released last month that identified firms and individuals suspected of corruption in the Iraqi oil trade.

Volcker also said he could use further help from BNP Paribas, the French bank that handled most of the programme's revenues. Volcker and his panel were appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan last April to probe corruption charges in the programme. He said he would submit a final report in mid-2005 but would release interim reports earlier.

The oil-for-food programme began in December 1996 to allow Iraq to sell enough oil to provide civilian goods and alleviate the impact of sanctions on ordinary Iraqis.

The embargoes were imposed in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Since the US-led invasion in March 2003, documents from Iraq have emerged on how Saddam obtained illegal funds before and during the UN programme.

Volcker's list included 3,545 companies that sold supplies to Iraq and 250 firms that bought oil through the UN programme. Another 941 companies exported goods to northern Iraq, which was under a separate plan administered by UN agencies.

Russian firms and traders buying Iraqi crude were in first place with US$19 billion (HK$148.2 billion) worth of contracts among 64 nations.

Companies in France were a low second with US$4 billion. Switzerland and Britain were next with over HK$3 billion. US companies were in 26th place. The US consumed some 40 per cent of Iraqi oil but bought it through foreign affiliates or foreign traders.

Two weeks ago Charles Duelfer, the top US investigator for the CIA, also published a list of companies, individuals and political parties that allegedly received kickbacks or paid surcharges on oil that was under-priced.

His list from Iraqi sources, still to be verified, showed more than 25 per cent of the allocations or vouchers going to Russian individuals, political parties and government ministries.

About 15 per cent went to people and entities in France.

Duelfer, who will meet Volcker at an unspecified time, has said Saddam's government collected an illegal US$2 billion associated with the UN programme and another US$8 billion in smuggling or direct agreements with governments breaking UN sanctions.

Volcker said Paribas had co-operated ``up to a point'' but he wants more information.

``They are clients of the UN. We are entitled to have information that they have relative to their account,'' he said.

Volcker also indicated some difficulties in dealing with the accounting firm Ernst & Young, which the Iraqi government has engaged.

But he said this too depended on how agreements made with his panel were interpreted.

He expressed irritation at news reports fingering the UN secretariat Annan heads as the main culprit in the fraud allegations. He pointed to the 15-nation UN Security Council, which monitored the sanctions, and said there were ``clear indications'' of smuggling well before the UN programme began. REUTERS