Memo links Annan, Cotecna

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NEW YORK -- The United Nations panel investigating the Iraq oil-for-food scandal said yesterday it is "urgently reviewing" a 1998 memo in which U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appears to endorse a bid by the Swiss firm Cotecna to monitor the program.

If accurate, the memo would contradict a claim by Mr. Annan that he did not know about the bid by Cotecna at the time -- a potential conflict of interest because Cotecna employed Mr. Annan's son, Kojo Annan.

It would also appear to contradict a preliminary report by the investigating panel, headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, that Mr. Annan did not improperly influence the contract being awarded to Cotecna.

U.N. officials said yesterday that they had reviewed logs of Mr. Annan's contacts and had found no record of a Dec. 4, 1998, meeting in Paris between Mr. Annan and Michael Wilson, a former Cotecna vice president and longtime Annan family friend.

"There is no mention in that trip record of any exchange with Michael Wilson," said U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard, who noted that his office had contacted Mr. Annan, as well as the coordinator of the trip where the meeting is said to have taken place.

Mr. Eckhard said there is no entry of a telephone conversation, formal meeting or informal contact with the former Cotecna executive.

According to the memo, first reported in yesterday's editions of the New York Times, Cotecna officials had "brief discussions with the SG and his entourage" and said they were told that "we could count on their support."

Mr. Eckhard said it was not possible that Mr. Annan, who has consistently denied discussing the Cotecna contract with his son or company officials, could have endorsed the deal.

"That could not have come from the secretary-general because he had no knowledge that Cotecna was a contender for that contract," Mr. Eckhard told reporters yesterday.

Mr. Annan has consistently denied knowing that Cotecna, which at the time employed his son, was bidding for the contract to inspect and verify merchandise imported by Iraq under the humanitarian program.