UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced late on Friday an independent "high-level" probe into possible corruption and mismanagement in the UN-administered Iraqi oil-for-food program.
Annan has been under pressure to conduct an investigation from Iraqi leaders as well as the US officials searching for former president Saddam Hussein's hidden assets.
The UN has begun an in-house probe of its own staff. But Annan said it was now necessary to establish an "independent high-level inquiry to investigate the allegations relating to the administration and management of the program, including allegations of fraud and corruption."
In a letter to the UN Security Council, Annan said that for any investigation to be thorough and effective, support was necessary from the council, which supervised the program that began in December 1996 and ended last year.
The plan involved oil companies paying revenues to a UN escrow account while the UN paid suppliers of goods Iraq bought. Its purpose was to ease the impact of 1991 Gulf War sanctions on ordinary Iraqis.
Annan's letter said allegations in the media, whether or not they are well-founded "must be taken seriously and addressed forth-rightly, in order to bring to light the truth and prevent an erosion of trust and hope that the international community has invested in the organization."
A comprehensive probe, UN officials said, would need support from council members to investigate the middle men who bought the oil, companies that supplied civilian goods and the French bank BNP-Paribas, which handled a UN-Iraqi account.
The US General Accounting Office (GAO) is trying to locate and seize US$10 billion to US$40 billion in estimated hidden Iraqi assets.
Of this amount, the GAO in a report on Thursday charged that Saddam acquired US$5.7 billion from the proceeds of oil smuggled through Syria, Jordan, Turkey and elsewhere.
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