'US should repay Iraq for Halliburton overcharges '

The International Advisory and Monitoring Board for the Development of Iraq conducted a special audit on Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown and Root unit for the procurement and distribution of fuel products and the restoration of Iraq's oil infrastructure.

The monitoring board cited charges of $208 million, costs that earlier had been questioned by US military auditors.

In a statement made public on its Web site on Saturday, the board said it "recommends that amounts disbursed to contractors that cannot be supported as fair be reimbursed expeditiously."

Halliburton's spokeswoman, Cathy Mann, said the US agency's questioned the quality of the supporting documents for the costs -- not the costs themselves.