Former external affairs minister K Natwar Singh led a four-member delegation to Iraq in January 2001 and that his son Jagat Singh was also in Baghdad in the period, the Rajya Sabha was informed.

The delegation included former Maharashtra chief minister A R Antulay.

Singh was divested of the external affairs portfolio in the wake of the Volcker Committee report that named him and the Congress as non-contractual beneficiaries of Iraq's corrupt oil-for-food programme during the Saddam Hussein regime in 2001.

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"A four-member delegation from the Congress party led by Natwar Singh and consisting of Antulay, former external affairs minister Shiv Shankar and secretary of the Congress foreign affairs cell Anil Methrani called on (Iraqi minister) Tariq Aziz," Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

"Jagat Singh and former minister of state for home Subodh Kant Sahai also visited Iraq during this period," Ahamed said.

He was responding to a question by S S Ahluwalia of the Bharatiya Janata Party seeking details of persons visiting Iraq since 1990 and names of those who called on Saddam Hussein and Tariq Aziz.

National Democratic Alliance's petroleum and natural gas minister Ram Naik, accompanied by an official delegation, had visited Iraq from July 5 to 7, 2002 to attend the 14th session of Indo-Iraqi Joint Commission.