Executives defend Halliburton before Congress

WASHINGTON -- After enduring months of pummeling by Democrats, Halliburton executives yesterday appeared for the first time before Congress to dispute accusations that the company had grossly overcharged American taxpayers.

They offered a sweeping defense of the company's actions in Iraq, where a Halliburton subsidiary holds a US government contract, worth as much as $7 billion, to provide food, mail delivery, and other logistics services to US troops.

While acknowledging mistakes that they attributed to the difficulty of working in a war zone, the executives said that Halliburton actually had saved taxpayers millions, in some cases, by fighting to keep down costs.

''Never before has any contractor worked in as difficult and dangerous a situation as we do in Iraq," said Alfred V. Neffgen, who is in charge of all US government contracts for KBR, the subsidiary operating in Iraq. ''We have performed, and performed well, for our soldiers and our country."

Halliburton's record has emerged as a key issue in the presidential campaign as Democrats have focused on the company's ties to Vice President Dick Cheney.