UNITED NATIONS – A day after releasing his most comprehensive report yet on the U.N. oil-for-food program, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker, set out on a course that might pit him in a legal battle with Congress, vowing he would defy a possible subpoena by a House of Representatives committee investigating the scandal.

“If you think I have the possibility of waiving the immunities to which I am subject, which has implications to the status of the U.N. here, you should get your head examined. No possibility I will do that,” he told The New York Sun after addressing the National Committee on American Foreign Policy yesterday. Though an American citizen, “I am operating as a U.N. official with all the privileges and immunities of the U.N.,” Mr. Volcker, who heads the United Nations-authorized Independent Investigation Committee, said.

At issue is the determination of the House Committee on Foreign Relations, headed by Rep. Henry Hyde, a Republican of Illinois, to continue the probe into oil for food even after the Independent Inquiry Committee released its report – and specifically its intention to investigate Mr. Volcker’s investigation.

Mr. Hyde is expected to arrive at the United Nations on Friday along with other congressional leaders, including supporters of Secretary-General Annan, such as Rep. Tom Lantos, a Democrat of California, and detractors like Senator Coleman, a Republican of Minnesota, who is expected to issue renewed calls for Mr. Annan’s resignation. Mr. Coleman heads another congressional oil-for-food investigation.

A former Volcker investigator, Robert Parton, turned over to Mr. Hyde’s committee memos after resigning his post to protest soft conclusions on Mr. Annan. Mr. Parton’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, told the Sun that his client intends to cooperate with congressional subpoenas “so long as they are outstanding.”