UNITED NATIONS, March 20: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Friday launched a "high-level inquiry" into allegations of corruption in the now defunct UN-administered Iraq oil-for-food humanitarian programme.

In a letter late on Friday, Mr Annan sought the backing of the UN Security Council saying he would inform the council next week about the shape of the inquiry into the multibillion dollar programme it had supervised.

The programme has become a subject of press scrutiny here since the US-led invasion of Iraq, when it was transferred to the coalition provisional authority.

Mr Annan said there would be a probe. "I've been in discussions with Council members for some time now, to discuss the scope and the extent of the investigation," he said.

"It is highly possible that there's been quite a lot of wrongdoing, but we need to investigate and get to see who was responsible," he added, pointing out that the massive relief effort had involved "so many companies [and] so many countries" that a great deal of information would be needed.