A leading US investigative journalist has alleged that the Russian Prime Minister, Yevgeny Primakov, received a payment of US$800,000 from the Iraqi government.

In a report published in the New Yorker magazine, Seymour Hersh also alleges that Mr Primakov hindered efforts by the United Nations to monitor Iraq's weapons programmes.

Mr Primakov has close ties with the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, which date from the 1960s, when he was the Middle East correspondent for the Moscow newspaper Pravda.

Seymour Hersh alleges that, towards the end of 1997, when Mr Primakov was the Russian foreign minister, he received US$800,000 from Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz.

Thwarting the UN

The implication is that the money was a reward for Russian help with Iraq's weapons programmes.

Mr Primakov: Did he help Iraq break sanctions?

Russia has often been accused of supplying Iraq with sophisticated material to help it make weapons of mass destruction - accusations which Moscow has always denied.

The magazine says the payment was uncovered by members of British intelligence, who passed on the information to the Americans.

Responding to the article, the US National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger, said he had no evidence to back up the allegations. When the magazine approached the Russian embassy in Washington, it received a vehement denial.

Some American experts have already expressed scepticism about Mr Hersh's claims. Sources in Moscow have also expressed surprise, saying Mr Primakov has a modest lifestyle, and is not regarded as corrupt.

An assassination attempt?

The New Yorker article also says that when the Americans bombed Iraq in December last year, they attempted to assassinate Saddam Hussein.

They had information about two places which he allegedly visited - one in Baghdad belonging to his daughter, and the other where he was said to meet his mistresses.

According to Mr Hersh, they received this information from Unscom - the UN weapons inspection programme in Iraq -- as a result of an "intelligence coup" by a UN team led by the American inspector Scott Ritter.