It has been reported that a Swedish investigation has been started into Lundin Petroleum's activities in the Sudan and whether it was a party to war crimes between 1997 and 2003.

The Christian Science Monitor has reported that Magnus Elving, the public prosecutor, announced the investigation on Monday. It was sparked by a report by the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan that a consortium led by Lundin and including Petronas of Malaysia and OMV of Austria "may have been complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity."

The online newspaper further said that the report charged that "the home governments of Lundin, Petronas and OMV have failed in their international obligations to prevent human rights violations and international crimes."

The consortium signed an agreement in 1997 with Sudan to search for oil in a region where the government did not have full control of the area. The government effectively went to war against the civilian population, killing 12,000 people and driving 160,000 from their homes.

It has further been reported that the case is a sensitive one because Foreign Minister Carl Bilt was a member of the Lundin board from 2000 to 2006. (With Inputs from Agencies)