BAGHDAD, December 24, 2004 (Reuters) - Tareq Aziz, deputy prime minister under Saddam Hussein, denies Iraq exploited the scandal-hit U.N. oil-for-food program to make billions of dollars, his defense lawyer said on Friday.

A day after his first meeting with the former public face of Saddam's administration, Badih Aref dismissed speculation that Aziz might testify against his former colleagues or give evidence on alleged corruption at the United Nations.

"We used to offer assistance to parties, institutions and states that stood by Iraq. We helped them via the United Nations because the oil-for-food program was a legitimate program supervised by the U.N.," the lawyer quoted Aziz as saying.

"This cannot be considered bribery because it was our right to sell oil to those who wanted it and we could not affect the price at all, as it was set by the United Nations itself."

The United Nations has come under scrutiny over corruption allegations in the oil-for-food program it supervised.

The program, started in December 1996, allowed Iraq to sell oil to ease the suffering of ordinary Iraqis from U.N. sanctions imposed over its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Iraq's new leaders released documents this year indicating Saddam also used secret grants of oil to reward 1,300 people and groups in more than 40 countries.

The 68-year-old Aziz laughed at suggestions that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was involved in any misdeeds, Aref told Reuters, saying that was what Washington wanted to believe.

Aref said he spent five hours on Thursday with the former foreign minister, one of 12 top figures from the toppled government who are in U.S. custody near Baghdad airport awaiting trials for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

NOT TESTIFYING AGAINST SADDAM

Aziz, behind bars since surrendering in April last year and not seen in public since a brief court appearance in July 2004, told the lawyer he would not give evidence against Saddam:

"He said 'I am not willing to talk about Saddam Hussein'.

"'When I am free, I will write a book or article about him, but I am not willing to testify against Saddam in front of anyone, any court or any judge'."

Last week, Saddam's feared cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," and a former defense minister were questioned by a judge, launching a new phase in the court process.

Saddam himself met a defense lawyer for the first time last week, though he is expected to be among the last to stand trial.

Aref did not know when the man who traveled the world articulating Iraq's views in urbane diplomat's English, would have his day in court, and urged the Special Tribunal running the trials to allow him at least five more interviews with Aziz.

Hands and voice shaking, Aref read a handwritten statement he said was penned by Aziz denying he had a role in a bloody purge of Baath Party leaders and officers when Saddam became president in 1979.

Aziz also said he was out of the country when Saddam's army mounted raids into Kurdish northern Iraq in 1991.

Some believe Aziz, a member of Iraq's Christian minority who studied English literature and briefly worked as a journalist, could make a case for having had little direct involvement in or control over nastier aspects of Saddam's government.

With the exception of Saddam, who is being held elsewhere, his jailed lieutenants were kept in cells at a detention center near Baghdad's airport and saw each other during their daily two hours of exercise, Aref said.

Aziz, who suffered a stroke and heart attack before last year's invasion, was receiving medical attention, Aref said.

"He was in high spirits," Aref said. "He would joke with me, relaxed, but his clothes were not warm enough."

NBC television published photographs last week of a thinner, greyer Aziz in prison, wearing an orange jacket tight white cap.

It was a considerable change for a man known for a love of fine suits, good whisky and Cuban cigars.

Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited.