MOSCOW - Russian lawmakers on Friday rejected a senior U.S. official's suggestion that Russia, France and Germany forgive debts to postwar Iraq to help the country restore its battered economy.

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday that he hoped the countries would consider writing off some or all of their debts to Iraq's new government.

"I hope ... they will think about the very large debts that come from money that was lent to the dictator to buy weapons and to build palaces and to building instruments of repression," Wolfowitz said. "I think they ought to consider whether it might not be appropriate to forgive some or all of that debt so the new Iraqi government isn't burdened with it."

The comments came as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepared to meet with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for a summit in St. Petersburg. The three leaders led the diplomatic opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Gennady Seleznyov, speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, criticized the U.S. call for debt forgiveness, saying it was up to Iraq, not the United States, to negotiate its obligations.

"Iraq is not the 51st state of America," Seleznyov said in comments broadcast on Russia's Channel One. "All debt issues will be resolved only with the lawful government of Iraq."

Vladislav Reznik, a leading pro-Kremlin lawmaker, agreed, saying Russia would not discuss the issue "with the occupation forces," according to the Interfax news agency.

Russia is owed at least US$7 billion in Soviet-era debt by Baghdad. It is also seeking to protect lucrative contracts signed by Russian companies to develop Iraq's oil industry.

Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov accused the U.S. of taking revenge on countries that did not support its position on Iraq.

"The Americans acted in a barbaric way, unleashing aggression on Iraq, and they are behaving in the same boorish way against countries that opposed U.S. actions," Zyuganov said in a statement. 

The Associated Press