Representatives of the Bulgarian Socialist Party vehemently denied reports of Baghdad newspaper Al-Mada, which cited the party as one of the beneficiaries, recompensed in oil for their loyalty to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Not a single cent from Iraq has flowed into the budget of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, its leader Sergey Stanishev commented the publication. The Bulgarian Socialist Party has never held negotiations with representatives of Baath on this type of economic projects, he underlined.

At the end of last week the Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada published a list of oil contracts greenlighted by the State Organization for Oil Trade in 1998. It features 200 people from 40 countries, including Bulgaria. According to the reports the Bulgarian Socialist Party got 12 million barrels of oil as a "gift" by Saddam Hussein, while Iraqbul company received 2 million barrels of oil.

President Georgi Parvanov, who headed the party in 1998, ordered the Intelligence Service and the National Security Service to investigate the media reports. He called the claims "inappropriate black humour".

It is absurd to claim that the Bulgarian Socialist Party was financed by the regime of the former Iraqi dictator, the President's advisor on domestic policy Kostadin Paskalev said. He was categorical that none of the leaders of the Socialist Party can be implicated in this "scandal".

In its article Al-Mada specifies that the published list features only data from the Oil Ministry, but claims that each of the ministries of the former regime possesses a similar list.

With an average oil price of about USD 15 per barrel in 1998, the presents that Saddam Hussein gave away are estimated at billions of dollars.