STOCKHOLM, Aug 20: UN chief Kofi Annan insisted on Wednesday that the United Nations had no plans to pull out of Iraq despite the bombing of its Baghdad headquarters, taking a swipe at the US-led coalition which he said was responsible for security.

“We will carry on our mandate that has been given to us by the Security Council,” the secretary-general said at a news conference at Stockholm airport shortly before he was due to board a flight to New York.

Asked whether the UN was planning to withdraw staff from Iraq, Mr Annan said: “We do not intend to do this. We are assessing the situation.”

“The least we owe them (victims) is to ensure that their deaths have not been in vain. We shall continue,” he said.

Mr Annan criticized the United States for failing to secure the situation in Iraq for international humanitarian workers: “The occupying power is responsible for law and order and the security of the country,” he said.

“We had hoped that by now the coalition forces would have secured the environment for us to be able to carry on the essential work of political and economic reconstruction, institution-building and for Iraqis to carry on with their work,” he said.

“That has not happened,” the UN chief said, while acknowledging that it was difficult to prevent such an attack.

A US military spokesman disagreed with Mr Annan, saying the UN was in charge of its own security. “It was a UN issue to provide their own security,” said Lieutenant Peter Rekers.

“They had a private security company providing security around the (UN) compound,” Lt Rekers said.

The UN and the US have been at the loggerheads over the question of security in Iraq, and the UN’s role in general.

According to a report in the New York Times last week, Washington is no longer seeking a major UN role in the occupation of Iraq, and will instead try to enlist individual countries to help the US-led occupation forces.

The report said the US government had specifically opted against giving the UN any authority over security in Iraq.

Other reports have indicated that US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is strongly opposed to any dilution of military authority over Iraq by involving the United Nations.

It is feared, the reports said, that a UN role might actually hamper US operations, including against guerillas or terrorists, in Iraq.

Meanwhile, the US-led coalition said it would re-evaluate its security procedures following the attack.

Mr Annan said the UN would also review its security in Iraq and the rest of the world, adding the Security Council would meet later on Wednesday to discuss its next moves.

The UN’s mandate in Iraq includes coordinating humanitarian and reconstruction assistance, promoting the safe return of refugees and facilitating the reconstruction of key infrastructure.

The top UN envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was among those killed in Tuesday’s truck bombing, which Mr Annan described as a “brutal act of senseless violence”.

“Yesterday was a dark Tuesday for the UN, Iraq and international solidarity. On that day the United Nations lost some of its most outstanding public servants, including Sergio Vieira de Mello,” said Mr Annan, with tears in his eyes.

Mr Annan said he believed the bombing and recent attacks against the coalition were the result of an organized rebellion and not independent acts carried out by disgruntled Iraqis.

“Obviously it seems to be much more organized and much deeper than one thought at the beginning,” he said. Meanwhile, the UN human rights office in Geneva vowed to continue its work in Iraq, saying that would be a fitting tribute to its head, Mr de Mello.

“There is no doubt as a matter of principle that UN activities in general and human rights activities in particular will continue on Iraq and in Iraq,” the assistant UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, told reporters.

“As far as human rights are concerned, what happened in Baghdad will not deter us. And the human rights work of the UN will go forward in Baghdad, in Geneva and the different parts of the world where we are present,” Mr Ramcharan said.

He said all the other 10 UN human rights staff present at the time of the explosion in Baghdad were well.

Mr de Mello was the most senior UN official to die in a Middle East attack since Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish UN mediator, was killed by Zionist radicals in 1948.