(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-08 09:36

NAIROBI - Former UN chief Kofi Annan Thursday denied reports that his hotel room in Nairobi has been bugged.

Reports said the former UN secretary-general's business and personal conversations were being intercepted during the ongoing negotiations aimed at resolving the crisis in Kenya after a thorough search was carried out in his Serena Hotel room Tuesday evening.

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan addresses a news conference after a meeting with business leaders in Nairobi February 5, 2008. [Agencies]

For how long the room has been planted or by whom, the report said it was unclear. But in a statement, the former UN chief's spokesman Fred Eckhard said Annan said the report was "news to me. "

"Bugged," exclaimed Kofi Annan on being told of the story in a South African newspaper, "That is news to me."

The media reports said Annan was "furious" but in fact this was the first time he heard of it, according to Eckhard.

He said the UN security was responsible for "sweeping" Annan's premises regularly. "Anyway," Eckhard commented, "we have nothing to hide."

The reports had said that Annan's security aides found the device Tuesday while the talks were in session.

"Annan is said to be 'livid,' but it is not yet known how he intends to act on Tuesday night's revelations or whether he will walk away from the already troubled negotiations," it said.

Annan arrived in the Kenyan capital on January 15 on an African Union invitation to mediate the talks between President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga over disputed election victory.

He was joined by Graca Machel and the former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa, under the banner of the Panel of Eminent Persons.

News of the bugging comes just 24 hours after Cyril Ramaphosa, a Johannesburg business tycoon nominated by Annan to lead longer- term negotiations in Kenya, withdrew as the intended chief negotiator when the government of Kibaki made it be known that they would not trust the South African's intervention.

Ramaphosa was not the first South African to receive his walking papers. Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu's efforts to broker a deal last month were also met with a tepid reaction.

More than 1,000 lives have been lost, some 300,000 people are internally displaced and billions of shillings worth of damage has been carried out on properties and businesses throughout the country. Weeks of turmoil have delivered a major blow to Kenya's tourism industry, the top foreign currency earner, while tea production and agriculture have also been hard hit.