Andersen, one of the big five accounting firms, is to fire the partner who led the audit of Enron, the bankrupt US energy group.

As part if its internal investigation Andersen said it discovered activities &quotincluding the deletion of thousands of e-mails and the rushed disposal of large numbers of paper documents. These activities were on such a scale and of such a nature as to remove any doubt that Andersen's policies and reasonable good judgment were violated,&quot Andersen said in a statement.