UNITED NATIONS — As concerns grew about inadequate security measures taken prior to last month’s terrorist bombing of the U.N.’s Algiers headquarters, Secretary-General Ban announced yesterday his intention to set up an independent panel to investigate the incident and recommend ways to improve worldwide protection for employees.

Concerns about possible Al Qaeda-style attacks against international organizations were reportedly made known to the Algerian government and U.N. authorities before the December 11 twin car bombing that killed 17 U.N. employees — more staffers than in the August 21, 2003, bombing of the Baghdad U.N. headquarters. Several U.N. officials, who insisted on anonymity to avoid further conflict, blamed the Algerian government, saying it alone could have ordered the erection of barriers at the entrances to the street where the bombing occurred. Others said the United Nations showed too much deference to the government’s sensitivities — and, specifically, to Algeria’s effort to present to its people a false picture of a country where no terrorism exists.

The United Nations “has never received any advance warning from whatever source” prior to the attack, Mr. Ban told reporters last week. Yesterday, he said he would follow up on an internal report by the U.N. security chief, David Veness of Britain, by establishing a new independent panel whose members are yet to be appointed. Mr. Veness’s findings, handed to Mr. Ban on Friday, would not be available to the public or member states, according to a spokeswoman, Michele Montas. “It is not appropriate at this time to make any interim report public,” Mr. Ban told reporters. Instead, the proposed independent panel will “try to find out more facts, and try to find out measures, what we can do more to strengthen our measures against all possible attacks against the United Nations.” Once formed, the investigative panel would become the fourth U.N. assessment of its security against terrorism, the most well-known of which was appointed by a former secretary-general, Kofi Annan, and headed by Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, to investigate the Baghdad bombing.

Security concerns in Algeria date back to as early as two years ago when, according to one source, U.N. officials questioned the wisdom of consolidating all activities of the organization in one building known as the U.N. House and its placement in a small and narrow street in downtown Algiers, where it could become a target for terrorists. Last week, Selbe Ndiaye, the widow of the top U.N. security officer in Algiers — Babacar Ndiaye of Senegal, who was killed in the December attack — told Bloomberg that his repeated warnings about terror threats went unheeded.

There were seven suicide bombings in Algeria last year — all claimed by a North African terrorist network known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, or GSCP, which has sworn allegiance to Osama bin Laden. The largest one prior to the December attack was an April 11, 2007, twin car attack directed at the prime minister’s headquarters. Even after that attack, the security measures at the U.N. House remained at the lowest possible “level one.” The entry points to the street, which could easily have been blocked, remained opened for traffic movement.