United Nations ? Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced plans Friday for an independent commission to investigate alleged corruption in the Iraq oil-for-food program.

Annan revealed his decision to go beyond a current internal U.N. probe Friday night in a letter to the Security Council.

The world organization has been hit with allegations that U.N. staff may have reaped millions of dollars from the oil-for-food program that helped Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions.

U.S. congressional investigators have also looked into the program, charging this week that Saddam Hussein’s government smuggled oil, added surcharges and collected kickbacks to rake in $10.1 billion in violation of the United Nations’ oil-for-food program.

“Hopefully the U.N. can build upon our work in looking at the books,” said Jeff Nelligan, spokesman for the U.S. General Accounting Office.

The U.N. chief said in the letter he wanted “an independent, high-level inquiry to investigate the allegations relating to the administration and management of the program, including allegations of fraud and corruption.”

Annan’s letter didn’t elaborate on how an independent probe would be handled. He said he would address this in a further letter.

Annan told journalists earlier Friday that he had been talking with Security Council members about the scope of the probe and the need for international cooperation.

“I think we need to have an independent investigation, an investigation that can be as broad as possible to look into all these allegations which have been made and get to the bottom of this,” Annan said.