The New York Times reports that Adecco has some accounting internal control issues and is wary to be compared to Parmalat. Parmalat is currently being investigated for accounting fraud.

An Adecco analyst in London said he had also been in touch with company executives.

"The main focus (Adecco) are pointing people to is that the issue is with their controls not with anything they have reported,'' the analyst said. Dresdner Kleinwort Wassterstein (DrKW) analysts upgraded the stock to "buy'' from "sell'' after Adecco's discussions with brokers.

The "suggestion is that auditors imposed more stringent criteria for 2003 vs. 2002 and Adecco internal controls were not able to provide the requisite information,'' DrKW said in a note.