Annan Enraged By 'overgrown Schoolboy' Reporter

For the world's most senior diplomat it was a decidedly undiplomatic moment. In a rare fit of temper for a man famed for keeping his cool, the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, launched an extraordinary attack against the New York correspondent of the Times, James Bone, branding him an "overgrown schoolboy".

The outburst came during an end of year press conference after the Times reporter questioned him about his son, Kojo, and the Iraq oil-for-food programme. "I think you're being very cheeky," the UN secretary general said. "Listen James Bone, you've been behaving like an overgrown schoolboy in this room for many, many months and years. You are an embarrassment to your colleagues and to your profession. Please stop misbehaving and please let's move on to a serious journalist."

Mr Annan also rounded on other journalists for what he said was unfair media coverage of his role in the oil-for-food programme, which he said had sometimes been covered through "deliberate leaks" that were "fed by people with agendas". He said journalists had missed the big story, which was the massive smuggling of Iraqi oil and kickbacks paid to Saddam Hussein by thousands of companies outside of the UN programme.

But Mr Annan, who was accused of bad management but cleared of any personal wrongdoing in a recent report on the oil-for-food scandal by Paul Volcker, former US federal reserve chairman, really lost his cool when he was asked about a Mercedes Benz which Kojo Annan imported into Ghana using his father's diplomatic immunity to avoid taxes and custom duty.

Mr Bone, who has repeatedly raised the issue of the Mercedes at UN press conferences, walked out after Mr Annan refused to let him ask his question and later told the Associated Press: "The Volcker report raises many serious questions about the integrity of the UN, and it is important that public officials paid with taxpayers' money answer these questions fully and without accusing the press."

At the end of the press conference the president of the UN Correspondents Association told Mr Annan that the Times reporter had a right to ask a question and was not an embarrassment. "You have the right to ask all questions you want to ask," he responded. "I reserve the right to refuse to answer questions I don't want to answer."