CHICAGO – The University of Illinois says it has canceled a partnership between its police-training institute and a military contractor best known for providing security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan because of a potential conflict of interest.

The company, however, says it hasn’t received the letter.

The university, which inked the five-year deal in May, scrapped the partnership with Blackwater USA because the institute’s director, Tom Dempsey, hadn’t informed the school he was negotiating personal contracting work with Blackwater while helping coordinate the partnership.

In an Aug. 15 letter sent to Blackwater and first reported by the Chicago Tribune, Chancellor Richard Herman said the agreement was entered into “in a manner which was inconsistent with university policy.”

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrell told The Associated Press Wednesday that the company had not received the letter.

“I can’t provide comment on a letter I have not seen and Blackwater has not received,” she said.

The agreement between the university and Blackwater didn’t mention money, but indicated the Police Training Institute and Blackwater would exchange faculty, work with each other’s students and conduct unspecified research together.

Dempsey requested a leave of absence to work for Blackwater in Afghanistan about two months after the agreement was signed. According to the Police Training Institute, he remains on leave while training local police in drug enforcement there.

In an e-mail sent Wednesday morning to The Associated Press, Dempsey said he hadn’t yet talked to university officials about the end of the deal.

University spokeswoman Robin Kaler told the Tribune that school officials who signed off on the Blackwater agreement weren’t aware of Dempsey’s planned consulting work.

“When an administrator is asked to sign off on something like this, he or she needs to have the complete picture,” Kaler said.

Herman’s letter also said key university officials whose jobs include overseeing the Police Training Institute weren’t aware of the deal. The letter didn’t name those officials.

Dempsey has denied the agreement gave Blackwater any foothold for future work to run police training classes certified by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. He has said he was not working for Blackwater when the university signed the deal with the North Carolina company.

Blackwater is well known for its private security forces used by the federal government in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The company also opened an 80-acre police training center, Blackwater North, in April in Mount Carroll, Ill., about 60 miles west of Rockford.