LONDON: World Health Organisation officials fear tobacco companies have undermined international talks to curb smoking after confidential documents detailed how British American Tobacco paid a middleman up to US dollars 350,000 a year secretly to lobby ministers, supply documents and report back on private meetings.

Bedros Kazandjian, a London-based middle man, gave BAT an inside track to the UN body and Gulf cooperation council for 20 years via Middle East politicians he befriended, visiting their homes and organising trips paid for by the company.

BAT files show he was retained to “help sort out problems” by using high level contacts to counter moves to strengthen health warnings on packets, lower tar and nicotine levels and raise taxes.

The disclosure heightened concern within the WHO that the tobacco lobby has frustrated discussions in Geneva this week on a worldwide treaty to combat smoking, including a clamp on smuggling.

Chitra Subramaniam, a WHO tobacco policy analyst, said: “We know this is going on and we can never be too careful with the tobacco industry ... nothing about the industry shocks us any more.”

Mr Kazandjian, a Lebanese of Armenian extraction, operates out of the Middle East Business Club in Berkeley Square, central London.

Jalal Ashi of Saudi Arabia and Mohammed Khateeb, an Egyptian, who were in WHO during the 1980s and 1990s, were said in the documents to have been particularly close to the BAT consultant.

Dr Khateeb was referred to by Mr Kazandjian as “being a close ally of mine” at the “nerve centre” of WHO.

In a letter to BAT, Mr Kazandjian described Dr Ashi as “a very close friend of mine who has helped us in many critical situations”.

In a report on a Gulf cooperation council meeting, he boasted: “I have managed to convince Dr Ashi to drop from the forthcoming ministers meeting agenda the question of further reductions of tar and nicotine, higher taxes and other new restrictions.”

Eric LeGresley, a tobacco control consultant who uncovered the documents, said: “BAT’s manipulation of political process in the Middle East, as suggested by these documents, show the extreme lengths BAT went to pervert health policy in just one region of the world.

“And with the stakes presently much higher, imagine the effort ongoing to undermine the global tobacco control treaty that is being negotiated in Geneva this week.

“With some of the devious, infiltration tactics of the cigarette companies now exposed, governments at the Geneva negotiations must be on guard.” WHO officials have long been concerned that companies manipulated countries to block anti-tobacco proposals.

Dr Ashi and Dr Khateeb could not be contacted last night for comment. Mr Kazandjian confirmed he worked on behalf of BAT until 1998 on “sensitive” tobacco issues in the Middle East, and had got out “before it exploded” after disagreements with the company.

BAT, under investigation by the government over allegations it orchestrated smuggling around the globe, denied any knowledge of Mr Kanzandjian but said it would have acted above board.

A statement said: “Historically they (WHO) have excluded the tobacco industry from dialogue in the formation of international tobacco policy. On this basis it is natural and perfectly legitimate for us and others to see to bring more information, sometimes through third parties, to the important debates that take place within WHO.”—Dawn/The Guardian News Service