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LONDON (Reuters) - This week's report into how Saddam Hussein dodged sanctions and earned billions from oil smuggling and bribes is a lesson to the U.N. how not to handle a possible crisis in Iran, a former British diplomat said.

"The Saddam regime was sustained by illegal smuggling that amounted to some $11 billion. The U.N. Security Council, including the U.S. and Britain, did very little to stop that," said Carne Ross, who was responsible for handling Britain's Iraq policy at the United Nations from 1998 to 2002.

"We should never make that mistake again," he told Reuters in an interview on Friday.

He was speaking the day after a U.N.-established Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, said more than 2,200 companies from 66 nations made illicit payments during the oil-for-food program.