Czech businessmen say Iraq has rejected an offer by the Czech Republic to resume trade because of broadcasts by Radio Free Europe.

They said the Czech Deputy Foreign Minister, Hynek Kmonicek, had been lobbying senior Iraqi officials in Baghdad earlier this week in an effort to secure contracts in the oil-for-food programme, but was told there would be no deals until the United States-sponsored radio station is closed.

Baghdad declared it would halt all trade with Prague after Radio Free Europe started its broadcasts to Iraq two years ago, which it described as an act of aggression. Former Communist Czechoslovakia was one of Iraq's biggest trading partners in the early 1980s

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service