Details on probe into Oil-for-Food programme expected this week - UN spokesman

Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to communicate to the Security Council this week the details of a panel that would look into allegations of corruption within the United Nations Oil-for-Food humanitarian operation for Iraq, his spokesman said today.

Responding to questions at the daily press briefing about the Secretary-General's intention to have an independent investigation into the allegations, spokesman Fred Eckhard said the next step would be for Mr. Annan to meet the Security Council, or send it a letter, sometime this week laying out the terms of reference for an investigative panel and the names of members.

Mr. Annan has already formally contacted the Council on the matter in a letter sent to its members on Friday.

The Secretary-General, Mr. Eckhard noted, feels that the investigation could not succeed without the cooperation of the Security Council and all Member States.

Asked about responses to the Secretary-General's written request for cooperation with an inquiry, the spokesman said L. Paul Bremer, the Administrator of the United States-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), has promised cooperation in a letter had to the UN's in-house watchdog - the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).

Mr. Eckhard said the investigation should establish the facts in a key number of areas, and that the UN looked forward to it. "We hope that the clouds that have been over our heads will be lifted," he said.

Between December 1996 and November 2003, the programme allowed the sanctions-bound Government of Iraq to sell oil for food and humanitarian supplies and served as the sole source of sustenance for 60 per cent of Iraq's estimated 27 million people.

All contracts for oil sales were approved by a Security Council panel - the "661 Committee" - which also oversaw most contracts for the purchase of relief supplies.

The operation was the UN's largest-ever in financial terms - purchasing and managing some $46 billion worth of humanitarian assistance, supplies and projects - and achieved progressive improvements in health, education and public infrastructure. Malnutrition rates for children under 5 in the central and southern regions were cut in half, the capacity to undertake major surgeries increased by 40 per cent and more houses were built in 2002 than in 1990.

In a separate development today, Mr. Eckhard confirmed, in response to questions, that the Secretary-General's Special Adviser, Lakhdar Brahimi, received a letter from the office of Iraqi Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani over the weekend. The letter is currently being translated into English from the original Arabic, the spokesman said.