The inquiry was established after a United Nations report named AWB as the single biggest abuser of the Iraq oil-for-food programme, saying it paid bribes worth 220 million US dollars to secure wheat contracts worth 2.3 billion.

The UN programme was designed to allow Iraq to use money from oil exports to buy food and medicine to relieve the suffering of the population caused by international sanctions against Saddam before he was toppled in 2003.

The inquiry heard testimony that Australia received warnings from the UN, Canada, the United States and some of its own officials about AWB's corruption of the programme.

But government ministers told the probe they accepted AWB's denials and dismissed some of the warnings because they came from countries jealous of Australia's prominence in the lucrative Iraqi wheat trade.

AWB initially repeated its denials to the inquiry, headed by former judge Terence Cole, but he later published an admission of wrongdoing that the company had prepared and then decided against releasing.

As many as 17 former senior executives of the company were named by counsel to the inquiry, John Agius, as open to possible civil and criminal action, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

They include the former chairman, Trevor Flugge, and two former chief executives, Andrew Lindberg and Murray Rogers.

But The Australian newspaper said Friday that the Cole report would clear the Department of Foreign Affairs of blame, saying the evidence "does not support an inference of actual knowledge" on the part of its officials.

The report was due to be handed to Governor-General Michael Jeffery at 2.30 pm (0330 GMT) Friday but will not be released to the public before it is tabled in parliament some time next week.

Prime Minister John Howard said in an early morning radio interview that he had not yet seen the report and could not confirm that it would clear the government.

"I have read newspaper reports but I have not seen the royal commissioner's report," Howard told commercial radio.

"When I do get it, which will be this afternoon, I will be obliged not to say anything about its contents until it is tabled in parliament early next week."

AWB, formerly a government body called the Australian Wheat Board, was privatised in 1999 but holds a monopoly on Australian wheat exports -- which analysts say it could lose once the report has been assessed.

Earlier this week, AWB posted disastrous full-year results, which it blamed on extreme drought and the fallout from the bribery probe.

Net profit dropped 68.4 percent to 58.14 million dollars (45 million US) dollars.

©AFP