'Britain bribed Saudis to buy arms in 70s'

"You either got the business and bribed or you didn't bribe and didn't get the business," Lord Ian Gilmour told BBC television.

The ex-minister's comments come as Britain reportedly nears finalising the sale of 40 billion pounds (74 billion dollars, 58.5 billion euros) worth of arms to Saudi Arabia, almost doubling the 50 billion pounds worth of trade already completed in recent years.

"In those days you either went along with how the Saudis behaved or what they wanted or you let the United States and France have all the business," said Gilmour, who was Britain's defence secretary from January to March 1974 in the Conservative government of then-prime minister Edward Heath.

"I think it would have been quite excessively puritanical for us to say, 'oh no, we won't have anything to do with bribes or douceurs (sweeteners), we'll let the other countries get the money'.

"It's not something you emblazon about or are particularly proud of. It just happens to be the terms of trade."

Quizzed on the legality of "douceurs", Gilmour said: "If you're paying bribes to high-up people in the government (of Saudi Arabia), the fact that it's illegal in Saudi law doesn't mean very much."

The BBC's "Newsnight" programme revealed a number of hitherto secret government memos in which diplomats and arms sales officials discussed how best to channel the commissions to "fixers" in Saudi Arabia.

The 1970s documents refer to "the fiddle factor".

One confidential memo dated 1972, from Harold Hubert, the head of defence sales, refers to using a company "to provide quasi-government oversight as well as "passing on the douceurs".

Britain has strong economic links with Saudi Arabia and is a major arms supplier to the oil-rich Gulf kingdom.

In September last year, British newspaper The Guardian reported that Britain has been in secret discussions with Saudi Arabia over an arms deal worth up to 40 billion pounds.