UN: The UN's European headquarters is probably riddled with listening devices, a security source said yesterday, a day after the organisation disclosed it had found a secret microphone in a meeting room.
"If we had the technical means and staff for thorough searches, I'm certain we would find one microphone after another. The United Nations in New York and Vienna are the same," said the source.
Ms Marie Heuze, chief UN spokeswoman in Geneva, had on Thursday confirmed a report by Swiss television TSR which said workmen had found a sophisticated bugging device during recent renovation of a room called the Salon Français at the Palais des Nations.
But an internal inquiry has not established who planted the bugging device or when, she said.
Swiss television TSR said the device was found behind wooden panels in the elegant Salon Français, used by ministers from major powers in September 2003 during private talks on Iraq following the US invasion and occupation.
Mr Patrick Daniel Eugster, a Geneva-based security expert shown photos of the device, told the television station it appeared to be of Russian or east European origin.
Its size indicated it was three or four years old, before such circuits were miniaturised, he said. "It is a very sophisticated piece of listening equipment," he added.
The embarrassing discovery comes as the UN headquarters undergoes a security overhaul, including massive new entry gates and concrete barriers.
The United Nations is spending nearly $40 million (€30 million) over three years to improve protection in Geneva after the August 2003 bombing of its headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 22 people including a senior UN envoy, Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello.
It also follows public charges last March by Ms Clare Short, Britain's former international development secretary, that British intelligence spied on the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, ahead of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Several delegations, including one headed by the French foreign minister at the time, Mr Dominique de Villepin, used the Salon Français during the September 2003 talks.
In Paris a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said: "It is the United Nations that is responsible for the inquiry, which is in progress, and like everyone we await the results."
The room was also used last January during talks on global hunger attended by Mr Annan, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and President Jacques Chirac.
It was also used when Mr Annan met President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and the Cameroon President, Mr Paul Biya, to discuss the disputed Bakassi Peninsula.
It is adjacent to the hall where the UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament holds its weekly negotiations and is utilised by ministers who address the 66-member forum and often hold separate bilateral meetings.