Former top UN officials have criticised the United Nations for failing to prevent the Iraq war and called for the "democratisation" of the organisation.

Denis Halliday, who first directed the UN's oil-for-food-programme in Iraq, described the United Nations as "deeply flawed."

Halliday resigned in 1998 in protest over sanctions, imposed on Iraq after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which he says were harming Iraqi civilians.

The oil-for-food programme, created in 1996 by the UN Security Council, was designed to allow former Saddam Hussein's regime to export a limited amount of oil to purchase food and medicine for its people under UN supervision.

Hans Von Sponeck, a former UN assistant secretary-general and UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, condemned the UN for its failure to prevent the Iraq war saying the United States "had a hidden agenda that was Saddam Hussein."

"It wasn't about human rights, they didn't care about human rights. It wasn't about weapons of mass destruction, it was about regime change. A myth had to be kept alive and the myth was the weapons of mass destruction," Von Sponeck said.

"No one has ever looked at the human rights violations that my own organisation perpetrated against Iraq," Von Sponeck said.

Von Sponeck also headed the oil-for-food-programme until he resigned in February 2000 in protest over the sanctions which he also believed were hurting ordinary Iraqis.

Both former officials were speaking at an international peace forum organised by former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad's foundation. Other speakers at the forum include Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.

UN sec-gen got to stand up

Halliday, also a former UN assistant secretary-general, later told AFP the UN is "irreparably damaged."

"The Security Council failed to stop (US President George W) Bush and (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair. They did not throw out Bush, Blair and their countries from membership. There's no reparations, there's no consequence of their illegal actions," Halliday said.

"The UN has got to address that failure, the secretary-general has got to stand up and be counted and denounce the United States and Britain for their aggression against Iraq."

"If it doesn't do that, it's failed."

"Until the member states, including those of the council, accept power of international law and respect international law, the United Nations has no future."

Von Sponeck also later told AFP "the US should no longer dominate the agenda in the UN security council."

"We are seeing a US and UK-led agenda ... two governments with a very clear objective and the others who either follow mechanically or are too weak to react."

Some 2,000 delegates from 25 countries are attending the three-day forum organised by the Perdana Leadership Foundation, formed in 2003 to promote high-level discussions in Malaysia.

Other speakers at the forum include prominent anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott.