Washington: A US Senate sub-committee issued a scathing report on July 7 criticising the board of directors at fallen energy giant Enron and marking the beginning of a week in which the government was to focus on corporate accountability.

The report excoriated the board of directors of Enron, concluding a six-month probe by the Senate's Permanent Sub-committee on Investigations into the largest bankruptcy in US history.

The report condemned Enron's board of directors for "knowingly" allowing the energy behemoth to engage in "high-risk accounting practices" and failing "to protect Enron shareholders from unfair dealing".

There is "a lot of responsibility here, and the board simply cannot escape it", Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, who chairs the Senate subcommittee, told CNN.

"There is a responsibility that the Congress has to help clean up this mess. We can't do it alone, we need the corporate world to clean up."

A similar report is likely to be released by the House Financial Services Committee after it completes its investigation into WorldCom, which last month admitted $ 3.8 billion in losses was added to the profit columns on its balance sheet.

The Senate report was released just one day before the Lower House of the US Legislature was to hear testimony from current and former WorldCom executives.