United Nations, Jan. 28 (Reuters): Seventy Nobel laureates today praised UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, facing questions about his role in the tainted Iraq oil-for-food programme, for advancing world peace.

?He has never failed to take a critical look at the UN to examine its weaknesses and recommend improvements,? the prize-winners said in a statement released in New York. Annan was this week questioned for a third time by a commission investigating the $67 billion UN oil-for-food programme.

Some conservative US lawmakers have demanded his resignation and the head of the commission, former US federal reserve chairman Paul Volcker, was expected to issue his first findings in the inquiry next week. Among the signatories were world leaders Jimmy Carter of the US, Mikhail Gorbachev of the former Soviet Union and F.W. de Klerk of South Africa.