Contradicting the testimony by a former Enron colleague about the amount of money Enron had in a reserve account and the nature of that account, he said he never tried to hide the company's broadband operating costs by minimising the asset sales that had made its numbers look better.

"Of course not," he said on Wednesday after explaining at length why he eagerly poured Enron's money into the broadband business because "I had never seen economics like those."

"We had no cookie jar accounts at Enron," Skilling said on the third day on the witness stand in his own defence and continued to provide innocent interpretations of activities that have been described as illicit by former subordinates testifying for the government under plea agreements.

He described cookie jar accounts as money set aside that could be tapped at any time for any reason. The company did have a "prudency reserve" which Skilling said he believed was entirely proper and necessary to provide a cushion against the high volatility of gas and electricity markets in 2000.

This reserve was tied to a specific purpose and could only be used if specific triggering events occurred, he said.

Contrary to David Delainey's assertion that Enron established an $800 million "cookie jar" for manipulating earnings, Skilling said, the reserves reflected a prudent risk management practice in light of volatile energy trading markets. And Skilling pegged the amount of reserves at nearly $500 million less than Delainey's figure.

"Yeah, a little off," he told the jury in a sarcastic tone. Skilling said he hugged and "may have kissed" Delainey when he heard about the reserves in October 2000, because he thought they reflected judicious practices, not an opportunity to cook the books.

"There were no cookie jar reserves at Enron Corporation," he said. Delainey, former chief executive of Enron North America and Enron Energy Services, pleaded guilty to insider trading in 2003.

Skilling told jurors that he would have called in the FBI if he knew about any illegal activity at the company when he headed it, though he might hesitate today after his recent experiences with federal law enforcement.

Skilling, 52, faces 28 criminal counts of conspiracy, fraud, lying to auditors and insider trading, while co-defendant Kenneth Lay, Enron's former chairman, faces six counts of fraud and conspiracy.

They stand accused of propping up the failed energy company by misleading Wall Street and the public about its deteriorating results.

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