The report was put out by Richard Breeden, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and calls for the separation of the chairman and CEO roles and appointing only independent members to the company board.

Currently Michael Capellas is both chairman and CEO of MCI, but he said many other steps had already been taken although he admitted that more would be required to regain public trust.

Capellas said the company had recruiting a new president and chief operation officer from outside the company, as well as brought in a new chief financial officer, general counsel and director of internal controls, all external appointments.

In addition MCI has replaced all the directors who were present at the time the WorldCom accounting fraud was carried out and it has hired more than 400 new finance and accounting personnel.

At present, a re-audit of company results from 1999 to 2002 is being undertaken by an outside auditor, while internal controls are being reviewed and strengthened, MCI claimed.