UNITED NATIONS — Investigators looking into allegations of impropriety in the U.N. oil-for-food program have questioned Secretary-General Kofi Annan about his involvement and will do so again, a U.N. spokesman said yesterday.

Annan met "more than once for an extended period of time" with former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and his investigators last year, spokesman Fred Eckhard said. He said he thought there were two meetings but was not sure.

"The secretary-general is part of the investigation, is a subject like anyone else involved in oil-for-food at the secretariat," Eckhard said.

Investigators are examining allegations that administrators at the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq took bribes and allowed Saddam Hussein to skim money from the program.

Launched in 1996, the program allowed Saddam's regime to sell unlimited quantities of oil provided the money went primarily to buy food, medicine and humanitarian goods for Iraqis and pay reparations to victims of the 1991 Gulf War.

A report in October by top U.S. arms inspector Charles Duelfer said Saddam was able to "subvert" the $60 billion program to generate an estimated $1.7 billion in revenue outside U.N. control from 1997 to 2003.

The scandal has led some to call for Annan's resignation.