U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called Kofi Annan a good U.N. secretary-general on Friday after days in which Washington chose not to defend the diplomat against a U.S. senator's demand he resign.
It was unclear whether Powell's comments signaled genuine support for Annan, who is under fire over suspected corruption in the U.N.'s now-defunct Iraq oil-for-food humanitarian program, or simply aimed to soften the widespread impression that Washington has no great desire to back the U.N. chief.
"Secretary-General Annan is a good secretary-general and the United States has tried to support him and the United Nations in every way that we can," Powell told Reuters.
It was the first positive comment from a top U.S. official since Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican investigating the oil-for-food program, said Annan should resign because of suspected abuses.
Powell, echoing the view of U.S. President George W. Bush -- who avoided any endorsement of Annan this week -- said people should wait until congressional and independent probes of the program are complete before reaching conclusions.
"We are deeply troubled by what happened (with) the oil-for-food program. There can be no question in anyone's mind that the program was corrupted by (former Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein," he said.
"These investigations are not of Mr. Annan, they are of the oil-for-food program, so let's wait and see what the results of these investigations are."
The concerted U.S. decision not to endorse Annan for most of the week contrasts with support from nations such as Britain, Germany, France, Russia, and China, which have rallied around the U.N. secretary-general.
'FULL SUPPORT'
On Friday, Dirk Jan van den Berg, the U.N. ambassador of the Netherlands, which holds the 25-nation European Union's rotating presidency, saw Annan at the U.N. to "express our full support for his work in leading the organization."
Coleman has said Annan should resign because he had to be held "accountable for the U.N.'s utter failure to detect or stop Saddam's abuses."
Asked if a lack of U.N. oversight was grounds for Annan to step down, Powell said: "You're asking me to prejudge the outcome of the inquiry, and I think that is not the way to go about this ... let's wait until the results are known."
The United Nations has appointed an independent team, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, to investigate the matter and a probe is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York.
At least seven U.S. Congressional committees are conducting their own investigations, including the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
At issue is a $64 billion program for Iraq, administered by the United Nations and supervised by the 15-nation Security Council, that was meant to ease the impact of sanctions on ordinary Iraqis during Saddam's rule.
Iraqi authorities have released intelligence suggesting Saddam exploited the program through kickbacks and surcharges, earning billions of dollars through his grip on which vendors could buy Iraqi oil and sell goods.
Saddam also used secret oil allocations to reward 1,300 individuals, government officials and political parties from more than 40 countries, according to lists drawn up in Iraq.
Charles Duelfer, who led the failed U.S. effort to locate stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons in Iraq after the U.S.-led war, said Saddam earned $3 billion by cheating the $64 billion oil-for-food program and another $7.5 billion outside of the program. (Additional reporting by Saul Hudson and Carol Giacomo in Washington and by Evelyn Leopold at the United Nations)