The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, said Tuesday that a staff member had filed a complaint about sexual harassment against him.
Lubbers denied improper behaviour after the New York Times reported Tuesday that a woman administrator had lodged the formal complaint, alleging an incident as she and six other male staff members were leaving a meeting.
"It has been brought to my attention by Dileep Nair, the head of the (UN) Office of Internal Oversight, that a complaint about sexual harassment has been filed against me by a UNHCR staff member," Lubbers said in a statement.
The complaint referred to a formal meeting in Lubbers' office on December 18, 2003, which was attended by five other staff members, he said.
"The complaint was filed on April 27 of this year, more than four months after the alleged harassment. In that meeting of last December 18, there was no improper behaviour on my part," added the former Dutch prime minister.