Former French interior minister Charles Pasqua, accused by US lawmakers of involvement in corruption in the oil-for-food program for Iraq, said he is caught in the crossfire of what he called an American campaign against France.

At his first news conference to deny claims he received millions of barrels of oil from Saddam Hussein's regime, Pasqua said he had no link to a Swiss firm that supposedly handled oil allocations on his behalf.

Pasqua described what he called ``a general campaign under way in the United States against France'' and said France's opposition to the Iraq war is viewed by the administration of George W Bush and ``a section of American public opinion'' as a betrayal.

``I have the impression that I am being used in this campaign,'' he said. ``And I don't intend to sit idly by.''

Last week US senators presented what they said is evidence that Pasqua and British lawmaker George Galloway received oil allocations from Saddam Hussein in return for backing his regime.

This week, the committee also accused Russian leaders, including a former chief of staff to President Vladimir Putin and a lawmaker, of receiving Iraqi oil allocations in an abuse of the UN program.

The Russian lawmaker, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, denied wrongdoing. ``I did not sign a single contract, I did not receive a single cent from Iraq - not a kopeck,'' he told Ekho Moskvy radio.

Galloway said as he arrived at Dulles International Airport in Washington on his way to Capitol Hill to refute charges, ``There isn't any doubt that documents about me have been forged.

``There's at least one document which on the flimsiest of forensic examination [by] the naked eye can clearly be seen to have had my name inserted after the fact.''

Pasqua said he has asked the president of France's Senate, of which he is a member, for a parliamentary inquiry to investigate the allegations and again denied he benefited from Saddam's regime. ``I have never been to Iraq,'' he said. ``I have never met Saddam Hussein. I never received anything from the Iraqis, in any domain.

``If my name appears on documents as having benefited from allocations, it can only be the result of fraudulent behavior committed by certain people who used my name.''

Pasqua said he was not invited to the US hearings but is ready ``when the time comes'' to talk to senators.

``I find myself in the middle of a race between various committees of the American Congress and Paul Volcker,'' who heads a UN-appointed investigation into the oil-for-food program.

Pasqua said he suspects he was targeted because of links to President Jacques Chirac, who led European opposition to the Iraq war.