The talks come after Iraq suspended its dealings with the wheat distributor until the Cole inquiry into alleged kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein regime concludes, effectively locking Australian wheat out of the lucrative Iraqi market.
The move has drawn fire for the AWB from angry government backbenchers , who want the organisation's monopoly to be scrapped, something that Mr Howard has indicated he will put forward.
"Inevitably this issue has raised some debate in the Australian community about the question of a single desk in relation to the sale of Australian wheat," he said, according to an Australian Associated Press report.
He said it remains government policy to support provisions that are already in place, and there would need to be a very strong national interest case to alter that.
"What we are considering now has to be looked at in isolation from the question of whether that remains an ongoing policy or not," he said.
Cole inquiry continues
Meanwhile in evidence tendered to the Cole inquiry into AWB on Tuesday heard from an AWB executive that the United Nations approved Australian wheat contracts, which included trucking fees used to funnel alleged kickbacks to the former Iraqi regime.
But the executive, Charles Stott, was unable to produce documents to back his claims, and his been accused of fabricating a conspiracy theory.
Mr Stott was questioned about trucking fees which were added to wheat contracts with Iraq, under the UN's oil-for-food program, and said he always believed the Iraqis had UN approval for the escalation of inland transport costs, allegedly used to funnel kickbacks.
Mr Stott was shown an AWB copy of an Iraqi contract for the supply of Australian wheat that did not specify any trucking fees.
But he claimed he had seen a signed and sealed, faxed version of the same contract that did detail the fees and hence he believed the UN was informed.
Mr Stott was grilled about why he'd never raised this evidence before and whether it was fabricated, and suggested he had been deceived by people within AWB.
"Is the deception occurring in that witness box now, Mr Stott?" asked senior counsel, John Agius.
"I think this has been quite a cleverly thought-through deception that has involved people in the company." Mr Stott told the inquiry.
He also claimed he had told other AWB managers about the Iraqi contract he'd seen.
At that point, Commissioner Terence Cole warned Mr Stott to think carefully about who he told about the document and whether he wished to maintain or change his testimony.
Mr Stott stuck to his story, but could not produce any documents to back it up and was accused of fabricating a conspiracy theory about deceit from within AWB to conceal his knowledge of sanctions-busting kickbacks to the former Iraqi regime.
The inquiry continues.