UNITED NATIONS, Nov 30: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Monday he was unaware that his son received $30,000 a year for over five years from a Swiss-based company, according to new reports.

The Swiss company Cotecna has been under investigation in connection with suspected corruption in the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq. Mr Annan said his son joined Cotecna at the age of 22 as a trainee in Geneva, before Mr Annan became secretary-general.

"He is an independent businessman. He is a grown man, and I don't get involved with his activities and he doesn't get involved in mine," the UN chief said. Asked whether he was disappointed and angry with his son for taking the money and not disclosing it, Annan replied: "Naturally I was very disappointed and surprised, yes."

Mr Annan told reporters that he had been working on the understanding that payments to his son, Kojo Annan, from Cotecna Inspection S. A. stopped in 1998 "and I had not expected that the relationship continued."

He reiterated that in his UN job he has "no involvement with granting of contracts, either on this Cotecna one or others". But he said he understood "the perception problem for the UN, or the perception of conflict of interests and wrongdoing."

The disclosure of the payments was the latest embarrassment for Annan and the United Nations related to the programme to help Iraqis cope with UN sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said on Friday that Mr Kojo Annan's lawyer had informed the independent panel appointed by the secretary general to investigate allegations of corruption in the oil-for-food programme that the younger Annan continued to receive monthly payments through February 2004.

Mr Annan's son worked for Cotecna in West Africa from 1995 to December 1997 and then as a consultant until the end of 1998. "Kojo Annan's sole responsibilities were in Africa," said Cotecna spokeswoman Ginny Wolfe. "He had nothing to do with any UN discussions and work."

Cotecna was hired by the United Nations on Dec. 31, 1998 to certify that food, medicine and other goods entering Iraq corresponded to a list of goods approved for import.

The United Nations previously said Kojo Annan stopped receiving monthly payments from Cotecna at the end of 1999. But Eckhard said on Friday he continued to be paid because he had an open-ended no-compete contract.

Five US congressional panels have been pressing the independent inquiry headed by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to hand over internal UN documents for their own oil-for-food probes.