Cancelling Ready Workitems

[Robin Sahasranam]

We have several workitems in READY status in our system which are no longer
needed. Some of the workitems are in inbox of users whose userids no longer
exist, because they have left. Others are workitems which no longer need to be
executed. I would like to archive these items and then delete them (We are not
allowed, by policy, to use the deletion reports SWWIDE.) The archive program
does not select workitems in READY status. I want to write a program to change
the status of the workitems to CANCELLED. Does anyone know of a function module
I could use to do this? I would rather not directly update the SAP workflow
tables.
 
Thanks in advance for your help.