UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- A former UN procurement officer, accused of taking illegal payments from contractors, was arrested on Monday soon after his immunity was waived by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a senior UN official said.

    Annan's chief of staff, Mark Malloc Brown, told reporters that Annan waived the immunity of Alexander Yakovlev, the former procurement officer who was accused by an independent investigating panel of taking 950,000 US dollars of illegal payments from contractors, at the request of the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

    "The secretary-general has done that within the last few minutes. We believe Mr. Yakovlev is now in custody," he said.

    The independent panel, in a report issued earlier in the day, also accused Yakovlev of seeking a bribe from a company bidding for a contract under the UN-run Iraqi oil-for-food program. Enditem