NEW DELHI — A draft U.N. report says inadequate efforts by the world body to protect civilians in the bloody final months of Sri Lanka's civil war marked a "grave failure" for the world body.

A copy of the draft report on the United Nations's actions in Sri Lanka was obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, when a final version was being presented to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The BBC first reported on the draft report.

The report accused U.N. staff in Colombo of not perceiving that preventing civilian deaths was their responsibility and accused their bosses of not telling them otherwise.

A U.N. report released last year said up to 40,000 minority Tamil civilians may have been killed in the final months of the quarter-century civil war, which ended in 2009.