US COURT DISMISSES THIRD CLASS ACTION AGAINST AUST GRAIN CO AWB.

MELBOURNE, Oct 1 Asia Pulse - Australian agribusiness AWB Ltd (ASX:AWB) said today that all three class actions against the company in the United States arising from the United Nations oil-for-food kickbacks scandal had now been dismissed.

"AWB Ltd has been advised that the class action filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York by Karim and others, who were allegedly representing residents of the three northern governorates of Iraq, against AWB Ltd, AWB (USA) Ltd, BNP Paribas and Commodity Specialist Company (CSC), has been dismissed by the court," AWB said in a statement.

The Karim class action alleged that by reason of AWB's conduct during the oil-for-food program, AWB depleted the UN oil-for-food escrow account, thereby unlawfully depriving the plaintiffs of the humanitarian benefits which those funds would have purchased for them.

It also alleged that AWB, BNP Paribas and CSC engaged in an illegal conspiracy.

AWB and its co-defendants had filed motions to dismiss the class action, and the motions had been granted by the court.

AWB had previously said it thought the case was ill-conceived.

The Australian government stripped AWB of its wheat marketing monopoly in 2006 for paying A$300 million (US$236.79 million) in bribes to the regime of Saddam Hussein from 1999 to 2003.