UNITED Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan cancelled his scheduled meeting with Premier Alex Scott two weeks ago, the Mid-Ocean News has learned.

Asked about the meeting yesterday, Beverle Lottimore, the director of the Department of Communications & Information, said the two men had not met as planned.

She added: "The Premier was notified that Mr. Annan could not make it. There was not extended inquiry."

While in Bermuda, Mr. Annan attended a tree-planting ceremony at Government House with his wife Nane, Governor Sir John Vereker and his wife, Lady Vereker. The two couples also had dinner.

Mr. Annan and Sir John frequently worked together when Sir John was Permanent Secretary for International Aid and Development in the UK, the post he held before becoming Governor.

Mr. Annan was appointed the seventh Secretary-General in 1997, and since then he has received both acclaim and criticism. Most recently he has been under fire for the "oil-for-food" scandal involving Iraq during the 1990s, where an independent inquiry committee discovered evidence of corruption.

Mr. Annan's achievements as head of the UN won him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2001.