18 April 2004	Sunday	27 Safar 1425

UNITED NATIONS, April 17: Russia said on Friday that it would strongly oppose any UN resolution to endorse a call for investigation of charges of corruption in the now defunct UN-run oil for food programme.

The United Nations informed the Security Council that former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker was prepared to serve on a panel investigating the corruption allegations and said "a Security Council resolution would be extremely helpful for the work of the inquiry."

US, Britain and France - three of the five permanent members of the Security Council-are seeking a new resolution to bolster the credibility of the investigation process, according to diplomats here.

However, Russia's deputy UN Ambassador Gennady Gatilov, said the Security Council's recent statement pledging to cooperate with the inquiry was sufficient and no resolution was needed.

Under the programme, which began in December 1996 and ended in November, the Saddam government in Iraq decided on the goods it wanted, who should provide them and who could buy Iraq oil. But a UN committee monitored the contracts.

The corruption allegations first surfaced in January in the Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada. It gave a list of about 270 former government officials, activists and journalists from more than 46 countries, who are suspected of profiting from Iraqi oil sales.