Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Tuesday that his government is considering changing the way Australia exports its wheat.

The move came one day after the Iraqi Grain Board decided to suspend business with Australian Wheat Board (AWB), Australia's sole wheat exporter, until the Cole inquiry is completed.

Commissioner Terence Cole is heading an inquiry investigating 300 million Australian dollars (220 million U.S. dollars) worth of payments made by AWB to the former Iraqi regime in contravention of UN sanctions against Iraq.

The immediate impact means AWB misses out on a bid to tender for the export of a million tons of wheat to Iraq.

Howard told a meeting of the ruling coalition, MPs and senators Tuesday that he did not want to pre-empt the findings of an ongoing inquiry into monopoly wheat exporter AWB, but said changes were being considered.

"He just said that it's something that they're looking at -- what can be done," a joint parties spokesman said after the meeting.

"They don't want to pre-empt the results and findings of the inquiry, but they also don't want to see any danger done to the wheat market, so they're looking at whether alternative arrangements can be made within existing legislation," the spokesman said.

Howard said he thought the inquiry would continue for some time.

"He spoke about the AWB and said that there would be no early finish to this, that the government had established this inquiry, that (inquiry head) Terence Cole was a very good lawyer (and) that if he wants an extension of the terms of reference he will ask for it," the spokesman said.

The spokesman said there was no indication of when the change might occur.

"The prime minister also said that he was concerned if there is any damage done to the wheat market and that he was looking at things which can be done without pre-empting the result of the inquiry," he said.

"He mentioned things such as alternative arrangements which can be made for marketing under existing legislation," said the spokesman.

Source: Xinhua