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A recently leaked UN report on Somalia says that 70% of revenue for the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has been lost through corruption, theft or waste, and corrupt leaders should face immediate UN Security Council sanctions, AFP reported.

"Out of every $10 received by the TFG in 2009-2010, $7 never made it into state coffers," according to the report prepared by the UN Monitoring Group for Somalia and Eritrea, which was leaked last week.

In 2011, almost a quarter of total government expenditure -- over $12 million -- was "absorbed" by the offices of the president, prime minister and speaker, it said. This equalled half the TFG's domestic income and "almost as much as the government spends on security in a time of conflict", the report said.

The report identifies several top officials within the TFG as participating in the corruption, including President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali and Speaker of Parliament Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aadan.

The report warned that a failure to curb corrupt practices would enable the rearming of al-Shabaab in the future, and noted that territorial gains against the militant group could be lost without improvements to governance. Al-Shabaab remains "a serious threat to peace, security and stability, not only in Somalia but also on the broader international scene", the report said.

The prime minister's office denied the accusations, calling them "absolutely and demonstrably false". "This deliberate misinformation is intended to tarnish the good name and integrity of the prime minister and also constitutes defamation and libel intended to maliciously harm the hard earned reputation of the prime minister," his office said in a statement.