Cheney's company loses contract bid

Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Dick Cheney, is no longer in the running to secure a $600m (£375m) post-war reconstruction contract for Iraq.

The US Agency for International Development (USAid), which is awarding a series of contracts for work in post-conflict Iraq, had invited Halliburton and four other companies to bid for the main construction contract. However, the potential involvement of a company that used to be run by the US Vice-president stirred allegations of impropriety.

It is unclear whether the furore caused Halliburton to pull out of the bidding or if it just lost out in the tendering process. Some analysts have suggested that Halliburton, known primarily as an oil services company, decided that the controversy was more harmful than the potential rewards of being appointed the prime contractor. Luke Zahner, a spokesman for USAid said: "Halliburton is not one of the two companies that made it to the finalist level."

The US government has already awarded the contract to fight oil well fires in Iraq to Halliburton, without allowing bids from any other companies. USAid is seeking $1.9bn from its government for reconstruction work in Iraq. It has selected Stevedoring Services, a company based in Seattle, to manage the captured Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.

The British Government and Army are said to be deeply unhappy about the US plan to hand over Iraq's only port to an American company.