Multinational companies are fuelling corruption in the world’s poorest countries by routinely issuing bribes and accepting illicitly-gained cash as payment, an international watchdog has claimed.

Transparency International issued the strongly-worded rebuke as it released its annual international corruption index. It said that huge infrastructure projects in war-ravaged countries, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan, were fertile ground for corruption.

“Bribe money often stems from multinationals based in the world’s richest countries. It can no longer be acceptable for these companies to regard bribery in export markets as a legitimate business strategy”, the report stated.

The report said that global financial centres played a crucial part in allowing corrupt officials to hide and invest funds.

Akere Muna, vice chair of the Berlin-based group, said: “Criticism by rich countries of corruption in poor ones has little credibility while their financial institutions sit on wealth stolen from the world’s poorest people.”

Countries recovering from conflict fared worst in the watchdog’s index of perceptions of corruption among politicians and civil servants.

Haguette Labelle, the campaign group’s chairman, said: “This is a very ripe area for corruption as everybody tries to get these lucrative contracts and are more inclined to try to put money under the table.

“Corruption manufactures poverty, it seeds violence and it destabilisies countries dramatically.”

The World Bank say that corruption is among the greatest obstacles to economic growth in poor countries.

Somalia and Burma shared bottom place in the survey, while Denmark, Finland and New Zealand finished top.

The report also noted that membership to the EU has bolstered the fight againt corruption in Romania, and that several southern African countries, inluding Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa, had also made great strides after political reforms.

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