A key report on the Iraqi oil-for-food programme next week is expected to clear UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan from personal wrongdoing but fault him for ignoring his son's work for a firm that sought a UN contract, The Wall Street Journal said on Friday. Paul Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve chairman appointed by Annan to investigate corruption in the programme, is due to issue an interim report on Tuesday that will focus on whether the secretary-general influenced the bidding process in the UN-administered programme, which ran from 1996 to 2003. A big problem for the secretary-general is expected to be the actions of his son Kojo, who worked in West Africa for the Swiss firm Cotecna Inspection, S.A., which received a lucrative contract from the United Nations for Iraq in early 1999. The Journal said Annan would be faulted for not paying attention to conflicts of interest involving his son, Kojo, who used his father's name and position for personal gains while with Cotecna. At the same time, the panel is expected to conclude there is no evidence Annan rigged the UN's procurement system or exerted undue influence over contractors or ever sought financial benefits, said the Journal, quoting people familiar with report's conclusions. Annan's new chief-of-staff, Mark Malloch Brown, had earlier told reporters, "We believe on Tuesday the secretary-general will be exonerated of any wrongdoing, but like you we have to wait for the report." But he said Annan's son had admitted that "he misled his father."