UNITED NATIONS — While blaming Turtle Bay’s member states for failing to enact his “ambitious” reform proposals, Secretary-General Annan yesterday all but confessed to his own failure to comply with one of the only reform measures that has been passed.

As he is about to end his 10-year tenure at the helm of the United Nations, which was marred by scandals and allegations of unsupervised financial corruption, Mr. Annan yesterday held a press conference that he had hoped would concentrate on his recent diplomatic efforts in the Middle East.

But when asked if he had filled out the financial disclosure form, which at the height of the oil-for-food scandal became obligatory for senior U.N.staff as a means of curbing some of the corruption, Mr. Annan gave a diplomatic answer that amounted to saying he has not. “I honor all my obligations to the U.N., and I think that is as I have always done,” he said.

According to U.N. bylaws, the secretary-general is not a staff member and is not required to abide by staff rules. Technically, therefore, he is not required to fill out the form, officials said.

Nevertheless, in February 2005, as he announced the new disclosure rules, the undersecretary-general for management, Christopher Burnham, told reporters that Mr. Annan would “not only fill one out but would probably be the first to do so.” The rules included filling the new forms and significantly lowering, to $250 from $10,000, the value of gifts that officials were allowed to receive.

Yesterday, Mr. Annan acknowledged that several other ideas that he had suggested to revamp the United Nations failed because “the decisions were up to the member states.” His plans were “ambitious, some would even say overambitious,” he said. “We have achieved quite a lot, but there are areas where I feel we could have done more, and we should continue.”

While American officials have stressed the need to change the way the United Nations runs itself, Mr. Annan yesterday mostly dwelled on the need to change the Security Council in order to “make it more democratic, more representative.”

Meanwhile, for the first time since returning from a trip meant to promote the council’s Resolution 1701, which led to a lull in the fighting in south Lebanon, Mr. Annan said his efforts at “facilitating” the release of two kidnapped Israeli soldiers are yet to yield a sign that Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev are even alive.

Speaking about an unnamed envoy whom he has appointed to ensure the soldiers’ release from Hezbollah captivity, Mr. Annan said, “He has not reported back to me yet, but when he does, he may be able to indicate there is a sign of life, but as of today, he has not indicated.”

Relatives of the two Israeli soldiers said, after meeting Mr. Annan two weeks ago, that he has brought them “nothing new.” They have repeatedly demanded to receive a “sign of life” from the soldiers before making any Israeli concessions. Resolution 1701 called for the “unconditional” release of the soldiers.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said Samir Kuntar, who was jailed by Israel in 1979 after being convicted of conducting a killing spree in the home of the Israeli Haran family, must be freed as part of any deal to release the Israeli soldiers.

Asked if he agreed with Sheik Nasrallah or with the council’s demand for “unconditional” release of the Israelis, Mr. Annan said, “I don’t want to appoint someone to handle such a delicate issue and comment on it here.”