Profits at Adecco, the world's largest staffing agency, have halved in the first quarter after the company took a E36m (£24m) hit following its accounting crisis.

Chairman John Bowmer has also announced that he will quit the Swiss-based firm at the end of this month.

Bowmer denied responsibility for the PR disaster that has engulfed Adecco over the last few months.

Once auditors had refused to sign off Adecco's 2003 accounts, the problem had snowballed out of control, he said in a press conference.

Net income fell to E30m (£20m) as the firm took an exceptional charge for accounting and adviser fees.