UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has suggested the Security Council regulate companies mining in the Congo. That includes five Canadian firms named in a scathing UN report.

The report chides several companies for exploiting Congo's mineral wealth and calls for financial restrictions to be placed on 29 companies.

Annan encouraged the Security Council to look closely at the companies' behaviour.

"For a start, they should try and make sure that minerals from Congo and the companies that have been mentioned...are investigated," Annan said Friday.

Some of the Canadian companies named in the report have been lobbying the federal government to help them be removed from the list.

First Quantum Minerals, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, discounts the report and wants a retraction.

"The information contained within the report is factually incorrect and all allegations included or implied within the report are categorically refuted," a company statement says.

Millions of people have died during Congo's four-year civil war.