US auditor calls for anti-corruption drive in Iraq

Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said US efforts to help Iraq build strong anti-corruption institutions were urgently needed and called for an American-Iraqi summit to battle a legacy of corruption.

"Creating an effective anti-corruption structure within Iraq's government is essential to the long-term success of Iraq's fledgling democracy," Bowen wrote in his seventh quarterly report to Congress.

It was released days after the United Nations concluded that 2,200 companies including DaimlerChrysler, Siemens and Volvo made illicit payments totalling $1.8 billion to Saddam Hussein's government under the UN oil-for-food programme.

Bowen's office, which has 20 auditors and 10 investigators in Iraq plus staffers in the United States, has made significant progress on cases charging fraud, bribery and kickbacks involving US citizens -- government officials and contractors -- in Iraq, he said.