Iraqi oil officials have accused a United Nations inspector of taking almost £60,000 in bribes from Saddam Hussein's regime as his henchmen and foreign business partners siphoned millions from the UN's oil-for-food programme, it was reported yesterday.

An inquiry by officials in the State Oil Marketing Organisation - a body which, under Saddam, was a key player in schemes that allegedly diverted billions in oil revenues from the UN-run programme - accused an inspector contracted through the Dutch company Saybolt of falsifying documents in return for bribes, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Saybolt was one of two Western companies hired by the UN to provide inspectors to help monitor the oil-for-food programme. A second company, Cotecna Inspection Services of Switzerland, has come under fire from Congressional Republicans, after it emerged that it employed Kojo Annan, the son of the UN secretary-general, as a consultant, after being awarded an oil-for-food contract. A UN review of Mr Annan's employment found no conflict of interest.

Senior executives from Cotecna and Saybolt were yesterday summoned before the United States Congress to help to explain how Saddam managed to divert money from the oil-for-food programme. The witnesses also included a senior manager from BNP Paribas, the French bank that controlled the escrow accounts into which oil revenues were paid.

Cotecna, Saybolt and BNP Paribas deny any wrongdoing. Saybolt told the Wall Street Journal: "Our inquiries both at the time and subsequently do not confirm the allegations of a bribe. But we're prepared to look into it further, given the new details."

Saybolt's managing director, Peter Boks, who was due to appear late yesterday, submitted a vast quantity of correspondence showing that Saybolt inspectors had repeatedly complained to Iraqi officials and the UN about apparent abuses.

The United States government representative at the hearing, Ambassador Patrick Kennedy, said that "voluminous oil-for-food documents are now being safeguarded" in Baghdad and the US embassy was working to gain access to them.

Mr Kennedy, of the American mission to the United Nations, directly blamed the "self-serving national economic objectives of certain key member states" on the Security Council for inhibiting British and American efforts to clamp down on oil-for-food corruption. The statement appeared to be aimed at France and Russia, which sought to have sanctions against Saddam lifted.

US congressional investigators at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have estimated that Saddam diverted at least $10 billion, or £5.6 billion, from the oil-for-food programme. It has been alleged that political figures around the world were invited to profit from the illicit oil trading.

The GAO found that the UN-administered scheme failed to prevent Saddam siphoning off money by demanding illegal "commissions" from oil buyers, and demanding a flat 10 per cent "kickback" on the value of all humanitarian imports. Under that system, a company selling Iraq £10 million of baby milk powder, for example, only delivered £9 million worth, and sent the last million as cash.

Despite pleas from Britain and the United States, members of the UN Security Council also allegedly turned a largely blind eye to evidence of rampant corruption within the scheme, which saw middlemen trading in "oil vouchers", that allowed oil sales outside the rules of the UN scheme.