Wednesday, March 30 2005 09:58 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

United Nations: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has that said he would not resign as head of the United Nations and indicated he would continue to work to push through his ambitious UN reform plan.

"I have lots of work to do and I am going to go ahead and do it," Annan told a press conference yesterday (Mar 29, 2005) after the release of an interim report into the scandal-plagued oil-for-food programme in Iraq.

Asked directly if he would resign, Annan said, "Hell no."

He claimed he had been cleared of any wrongdoing by the interim report released earlier yesterday by a commission headed by former US Federal Reserve banking chief Paul Volcker.

"I was absolutely confident that a thorough enquiry would clear me of any wrongdoing. The committee has now done so," Annan said. "This exoneration by the independent enquiry obviously comes as a great relief."

Annan also urged his son Kojo to cooperate with the Volcker panel, which said in its report that Kojo had cut off cooperation with the investigation.

"I love my son and always expected the highest standards of integrity from him," Annan said.

"I am deeply saddened by the evidence to the contrary that has emerged and particularly by the fact that my son had failed to cooperate fully with the enquiry. I have urged him to cooperate," he said.

The report said "serious questions" remain about Kojo's business dealings related to the former oil-for-food programme.