UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked the Security Council to cooperate with a "high level" inquiry into allegations of corruption in the now defunct Iraq oil-for-food humanitarian program.
In a letter yesterday, Mr Annan sought backing from the 15-member body, saying he would inform the council next week about the shape of the inquiry into the multibillion dollar program it had supervised.
The United Nations has begun an in-house inquiry of its own staff. But Mr 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."
Mr Annan has been under pressure to conduct an investigation from US officials searching for former President Saddam Hussein's hidden assets as well as a series of media reports alleging that government officials, foreign firms and a senior UN official profited illegally from the program.
The UN-run program began in December 1996 and ended a year ago. Oil companies chosen by Iraq put money into a UN escrow account out of which suppliers of civilian goods were paid to ease the impact of 1991 Gulf War trade sanctions on Iraq.
The probe originally was to be focus on UN staff but officials said it would need to look at foreign companies, suppliers, middle men who bought the oil and the French bank BNP-Paribas, which handled the UN-Iraq account.
This would require the cooperation of governments around the world. Mr Annan has spoken to individual Security Council members but diplomats said there was little chance they would approve a resolution compelling nations to cooperate with investigators.
Mr Annan said: "I don't think we need to have our reputation impugned. It is highly possible that there's been quite a lot of wrongdoing, but we need to investigate and get to see who is responsible."