New Delhi, February 6:

A disgraced former Indian foreign minister today accused Washington of forcing New Delhi to sack him because he had opposed the US invasion of Iraq.

Natwar Singh broke his silence over his December 2005 dismissal and threatened to part ways with India’s ruling Congress party, where he held top posts for more than three decades. “It was a conspiracy of the US in which Congress was also involved ... I was removed under US pressure because I opposed the invasion of Iraq,” Singh said in the northern Indian city of Lucknow.

After losing his number two post in the cabinet, Singh, who was linked to a UN food-for-oil scandal in Iraq, was sent into political exile by the Congress party.

The Congress-led government in India has been largely non-committal on the US military action in the Gulf.

Singh said he was framed by a US investigation committee, not only because he opposed Iraq’s invasion but because of a conspiracy to clear the name of former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan in the oil-for-food scam.

“My name was not there initially (in the US report) but was included later in order to save the skin of Kofi Annan,” Singh said.

“While the other countries threw the report in the dustbin, our government chose to act on it, as its aim was to harass me because of my stand (on Iraq),” the former foreign minister added.

Trouble for Singh began in October 2005, when former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker issued a UN report saying Saddam’s regime manipulated the oil-for-food programme to extract $1.8 billion in bribes.

Volcker had named both Singh as well as Congress, India’s oldest political entity, as beneficiaries of four million barrels of Iraqi oil each.