NEW YORK, Jan 23: Two officials of Halliburton corporation, the biggest contractor in Iraq, accepted up to six million dollars in kickbacks from a Kuwaiti company that was awarded contracts to supply US troops in Iraq, said the Wall Street Journal.

Halliburton disclosed the alleged impropriety to the Pentagon inspector general's office this week, The Wall Street Journal said on Friday. Democrats have demanded further investigations into contracts awarded to Halliburton, which was formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney and has donated to the Bush campaign.

Critics have cited the Halliburton's contracts as evidence of the Bush administration's favouritism to corporate friends. White House and Pentagon officials say the Defense Department's contract decisions are not affected by political concerns.

The two employees, who have been fired, worked for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root in Kuwait, the same division of the company involved in a highly scrutinized gasoline contract, the Journal said.

The WSJ said the new allegations do not involve the gasoline controversy, in which the company charged the Army more than double the price for fuel brought in from Kuwait than for gas from Turkey.

The disclosure is the first firm indication of corruption involving US-funded projects in Iraq and raises new questions about Halliburton's dealings there, the newspaper said.

Halliburton told the Journal that the company had told the Pentagon about the impropriety, which it said was "detected through the company's internal control procedures."

"The key issue here is self-disclosure and self-reporting," a Halliburton spokeswoman said. "Halliburton internal auditors found the irregularity, which is a violation of our company's philosophy, policy and our code of ethics," she told the Journal.