UNITED NATIONS, Jan 12: The United Nations officials on Tuesday welcomed the initial findings by an independent probe into the UN oil-for-food programme for Iraq , acknowledging the deficiencies in the way the multi-billion dollar humanitarian operation was run and pledging to revamp the world body's current overall management structure.

The preliminary analysis was released on Sunday by the Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC), headed by former United States Federal Reserve Board chairman, Paul Volcker.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a press briefing Here that it was just one step in the progress of an inquiry which the secretary general had initiated, and which continued to enjoy his full support and cooperation.

Earlier on Monday, while in the Maldives where he visited areas affected by last month's tsunami, Secretary General Kofi Annan said the latest developments showed that the programme was being audited and that attempts were made to try to correct whatever was wrong in the system.

"I'm happy that we have now been able to release the documents," he said in response to questions on the issue, explaining that this accorded with the intention of both the UN and Mr Volcker to make the reports public in an orderly manner.

Mr Dujarric said the UN would study the IIC's briefing paper carefully. He said he looked forward to the broader findings that would be contained in an interim report to be released in the coming weeks.

"What this initial briefing does show is that there was a dynamic auditing process generated by the UN itself, as well as the reports of external auditors which have already been made public," Mr Dujarric said. He noted that all audits - both internal and external - were conducted in accordance with internationally recognized standards.

Mr Dujarric also acknowledged that the briefing paper already showed hat there were deficiencies in the management of this unique and highly complex programme, which had to be implemented in an acutely difficult political environment

In its introduction, the paper notes that the relief effort was conducted amid severe political sensitivities in an area of the world where corruption is rife. The IIC had said that its interim report would examine how far the UN's management safeguards and responses were sufficient or deficient, Mr Dujarric noted.

"We ourselves are already focused on issues of management and accountability, and engaged in a critical review of the way we work, which will lead to a broad overhaul of the UN's management structure and systems in order to improve performance and accountability."