Annan expects blame over Iraq oil programme

LONDON - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said he expects to face blame over the Iraqi oil-for-food programme when investigators deliver a report this week.

He said he wished the United Nations had never agreed to run it.

Annan told BBC World Service radio he believed chief investigator Paul Volcker would also criticise others involved in the corruption-tainted US$64 billion ($91.71 billion) programme.

"I suspect that there will be lots of criticism (for) myself as chief admin officer, probably something on the 661 committee, the Security Council, the government of Iraq," he said.

"When it comes to Iraq, on this issue no one is entirely covered in glory."

The now defunct programme was designed to ship humanitarian supplies into Iraq while allowing Baghdad to sell limited oil under UN economic sanctions.

It was run by the United Nations and overseen by a panel of Security Council member representatives, called the 661 committee after a resolution governing the sanctions.

Volcker, a former US Federal Reserve chairman hired to investigate the programme, is due to issue a report of more than 1,000 pages on Wednesday on the investigation's findings.

Among those expected to face criticism are Annan's son Kojo, accused of using his father's name for personal profit while working for a Swiss firm that won a lucrative contract to inspect goods.

Annan is expected to be cleared of improperly interfering in the contract on his son's behalf, although sources close to the investigation say he will be rebuked for failing to supervise the programme properly.

Annan said he wished the UN had had nothing to do with the programme.

"We have a whole range of activities, oil-for-food was an extra programme we were asked to undertake. Honestly I wish we were never given that programme, and I wish the UN would never be asked to take that kind of a programme again," he said.

The oil-for-food programme was designed to lessen the humanitarian impact on Iraqis of UN sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. It gave UN officials the power to oversee billions of dollars in trade every year.

The programme ran from 1996 until US-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003 and toppled President Saddam Hussein.

- REUTERS