UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- More than 90 senior UN officials have followed the lead of UN chief Ban Ki-moon to make public their financial disclosure statements for 2007, according to a posting on the UN chief's official website.

    "Public disclosure is considered by the secretary-general to bean important voluntary initiative" in making sure that "in the discharge of their official duties and responsibilities, UN staff members will not be influenced by any consideration associated with his or her private interests," Ban's deputy spokesperson, Marie Okabe, said Thursday.

    The "Ethical Standards" section of Ban's website now contains a list of 91 senior UN officials who have chosen to provide a public summary of their disclosure including links to their statements. As other staff members give their consent to the Ethics Office, their names and disclosures will be added.

    Each official's statement must be reviewed by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, a firm hired by the UN to examine such documents, before a public summary is made available.

    Ban and UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro made their financial disclosure statements public in 2007, following the confidential review by Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

    According to Ban's statement then, he earned between 50,001 and100,000 U.S. dollars in 2006 and that his daughter and daughter-in-law worked at the UNICEF office in Nairobi, Kenya.

    Compared with Ban's nine-page statement that was released last year, this year's one-page summary is much simpler, disclosing that the UN chief owns an apartment and "residential property (lot)" in Seoul as well as non-residential land in Kyonggi province of South Korea. Under the entry "income from non-UN sources," Ban listed "previous salary" from the South Korean government without giving an amount.

    Ban has encouraged senior UN officials to make voluntary financial disclosures to raise the world body's ethical standards.

    "I will seek to set the highest ethical standard. The good nameof the United Nations is one of its most valuable assets but alsoone of the most vulnerable," Ban said in December 2006 while taking the oath of office at the UN General Assembly.

    "The Charter calls on staff to uphold the highest levels of efficiency, competence and integrity, and I will seek to ensure tobuild a solid reputation for living up to that standard."