UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan notified council members last week he was setting up an independent panel to probe any wrongdoing by UN officials running the program, but needed backing from member states to investigate companies around the world.

Most council members wanted to welcome the probe but diplomats said Russia, whose companies among those of other nations that had dealings with Iraq, only wanted to "note" Annan's intention to pursue a full-scale investigation.

In contrast France went out of its way last week to embrace the investigation and offer its cooperation. France's UN ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, issued a statement saying it was important to get "right to the bottom of possible wrongdoing or illicit activities from UN staff as well as contracting entities."

Annan is investigating the UN-run program that began in late 1996 and ended last year. Some $65 billion passed through the program, which monitored Iraqi oil sales and purchases of civilian goods. It was aimed at easing the impact on ordinary Iraqis of harsh economic sanctions imposed after the 1991 Gulf War.

The US General Accounting Office, an interagency body headed by the Treasury Department, says Iraqi elites raised $4.4 billion by imposing illegal surcharges.