OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott isn't commenting about a reported attempt to close down a police investigation into the Australian Wheat Board bribery scandal.

The man who led the Australian Federal Police investigation has alleged he was offered a promotion if he could "make the oil-for-food taskforce go away", Fairfax reported today.



Former AFP agent Ross Fusca, in a statement lodged with the Federal Court, said he had been offered a promotion to shut down an investigation of allegations that AWB paid kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in exchange for wheat contracts.



He also alleged the taskforce had a high-level political informant who indicated that federal government officials were aware of AWB's payment of kickbacks.



Mr Abbott denied any knowledge of the report when quizzed in Melbourne today.



"So I can't comment on it," he said.



Mr Abbott was a cabinet minister in the Howard government during part of the time the taskforce operated between 2006 and 2009.

Originally published as Abbott denies knowedge of AWB report