Newspaper in libel battle to ask US for access to Tariq Aziz

Lawyers for The Daily Telegraph are to ask the American government to grant them access to Tariq Aziz to try to secure vital evidence in their forthcoming libel battle with George Galloway MP.

Mr Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister and foreign minister who gave himself up to US forces yesterday, is named in Iraqi documents that the newspaper claims it obtained from the the country's Foreign Ministry last week.

The newspaper alleges that Mr Galloway had struck a deal with Mr Aziz for the receipt of three million barrels of oil every six months, of which the MP's share was between 10 and 15 cents per barrel. The newspaper also printed a "confidential and urgent" memo written by Mr Aziz on 5 February 2000 to fellow ministers detailing Mr Galloway's "work programme" relating to Iraq.

In another memo the newspaper claims to have obtained, the chief of the Iraqi intelligence service is alleged to recommend that "we should not be isolated from Mr Tariq Aziz supervising the project in its different aspects".

A legal source close to The Daily Telegraph said efforts were already under way to contact the Americans to get access to Mr Aziz. "It's a real possibility that if this goes to trial we could have Tariq Aziz giving testimony by a video-link from Guantanamo Bay." He said that Mr Aziz could provide vital evidence on the provenance of the documents and any alleged relationship between the Iraqi state and Mr Galloway.

Mr Aziz is one of a number of captured Iraqi officials who could help both sides in preparing their case for trial in the High Court in London.

Earlier this week US forces captured an Iraqi intelligence officer, Salim Said Khalaf al-Jumayli. "He is suspected of having knowledge of Iraqi intelligence service activities in the United States, including names of persons spying for Iraq," said a US Central Command spokesman.

It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the libel case could be won or lost on the testimony of Saddam Hussein himself. The Daily Telegraph has alleged he wrote a memo rejecting Mr Galloway's demand for more money. A lesser, but no-less crucial, witness is the Iraqi agent who is alleged to have met Mr Galloway in Baghdad on Boxing Day 1999.

Neither side will want the other to get to any of these witnesses first and both teams will have taken steps to dispatch lawyers to the Middle East.

The Americans' desire to see all captured members of the Iraqi regime brought before a criminal court will take precedence over access claims brought by The Daily Telegraph or Mr Galloway. Neither the newspaper nor Mr Galloway's London solicitors were prepared to comment on the future conduct of the libel litigation.