LONDON, 26 October 2005 — British MP George Galloway challenged the United States yesterday to charge him with perjury after he was accused of lying to a Senate committee over the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq.

Galloway, a strident opponent of the Iraq war, said he was “completely bemused” by fresh allegations that he personally solicited and received eight oil vouchers from Saddam Hussein’s regime between 1999 and 2003.

During sworn testimony in May the left-winger told a US Senate subcommittee investigating the oil-for-food scheme that he never benefited from the controversial program.

Speaking on BBC radio yesterday, Galloway said: “I did not lie under oath in front of the Senate committee.” He said he had not seen the latest allegations from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, which he accused of being “cavalier with any idea of process and justice.”

Galloway added: “I’m still willing to go to the United States and still willing to face any charge of perjury in front of that Senate committee. “I’m demanding that they charge me with contempt and with perjury, I’m demanding it.

“If a Senate committee can go on the international airwaves without putting this to you, without sending me an advance (copy) and accuse me of lying under oath in front of a Senate committee, then I demand they charge me with perjury — and I’ll be on the next plane to face it.”

In its report on Monday, the Senate committee said it had obtained evidence since Galloway testified that he had personally solicited and received eight oil vouchers from the Saddam regime between 1999 and 2003.

It also said that both Galloway’s now-estranged wife and a political campaign run by the British lawmaker received money generated by the oil allocations, and that Saddam’s regime took $1.6 million (1.3 million euros) in kickbacks in connection with the Galloway vouchers.

In denying such benefits last May, “Galloway knowingly made false or misleading statements under oath before the subcommittee,” the report alleged.

Galloway spent 16 years as a lawmaker for Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labor Party, but was expelled in 2003. In May’s British election he won a formerly safe Labor seat under the banner of his own Respect party.

Led by Senator Norm Coleman, the investigative arm of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs has been studying reports of corruption surrounding the 1996-2003 UN Iraq oil-for-food program.

Coleman’s group has focused its attention on individuals it believes took illegal benefits from the program, which was aimed at allowing sanction-hit Iraq to sell a limited amount of oil to buy food and medicine for its people.

Besides Galloway, Coleman’s committee has fingered senior officials at the United Nations, and top Russian and French politicians, of taking money or oil allocations from the program.

Two former high-ranking French diplomats — including the country’s representative to the United Nations between 1991 and 1995 — have been placed under criminal investigation by a French judge looking into the matter.