Annan faces criticism over oil-for-food failures

A sweeping year-long probe of the Iraq oil-for-food program has concluded that the United Nations allowed “illicit, unethical, and corrupt behaviour” to overwhelm the $64bn (€51.2bn) operation, and must adopt sweeping reforms to reclaim its credibility before taking on such tasks again.

Yet the Independent Inquiry Committee’s final report, to be released tomorrow, will say the program succeeded in providing minimal standards of nutrition and health care for millions of Iraqis trying to cope with tough UN sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.