UN calls time on phone cheats

United Nations peacekeepers enforcing a December 2000 accord between Ethiopia and Eritrea defrauded the body of more than US$500,000 (NZ$687,758) in telephone calls, UN auditors have reported.

The news comes as the UN finds itself under growing criticism following alleged mismanagement of its discredited UN oil-for-food programme for Iraq and for sexual abuse of minors by peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

UN soldiers normally have to pay for personal calls while on a mission but the troops serving in Ethiopia and Eritrea used stolen personal identity codes or abused a grace period to place calls without paying for them in 2003 and 2004, the UN Board of Auditors said.