UNITED NATIONS, March 23: Kojo Annan, son of UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, received at least 300,000 dollars from Cotecna, a Swiss inspection company awarded under the Iraqi oil-for-food contract, two newspapers reported on Tuesday. The amount was almost double the sum previously disclosed, but payments were arranged in ways that obscured where the money came from or whom it went to, the reports said.

The discovery, in a joint investigation by Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, and the Financial Times, comes as the independent UN inquiry led by Paul Volcker into possible abuses within the oil-for-food programme prepares to publish a new report on this matter.

Its findings will address allegations that Kojo?s family connections may have helped Cotecna obtain the UN contract.

Kojo Annan worked for Cotecna in Nigeria until December 1997. He was later retained first as a consultant and then on an unusual ?non-compete? contract. Cotecna categorically denied any impropriety, the papers said.

Cotecna insists Kojo?s work had nothing to do with the UN contract and that it never took advantage of Kojo?s access to the secretary general.

But the FT-Il Sole investigation reveals that senior executives from Cotecna met Kofi Annan on various occasions, once at his UN office. A UN spokesman said the meetings had nothing to do with a contract awarded under the oil-for-food programme.