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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A maverick British lawmaker angrily rejected on Tuesday as "utterly preposterous" charges by the U.S. Congress that he profited from the Iraq oil-for-food program and used the hearing as a platform to attack the U.S.-led invasion.

Far from showing the usual deference of witnesses before Congress, British MP George Galloway defiantly told a Senate committee its evidence against him was false, condemned the investigation and demanded to know why it had not questioned him first before making the allegations.

The east London Member of Parliament appeared before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is examining how Saddam used oil to reward politicians, particularly from Russia, France and Britain, under the U.N.'s oil-for-food program. As the sharp exchange unfolded, the mood in the packed room was electric with occasional snickers from the audience at Galloway's jibes at the senators.

Galloway bluntly confronted the Republican chairman of the committee, Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, and challenged the attorney to back up claims the British MP profited handsomely from the now defunct program. Some of his harshest remarks concerned Coleman's support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that ousted President Saddam Hussein.

"Now I know that standards have slipped over the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer, you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice," Galloway said.

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