Room temperature (RT) adsorption of oxygen on the (001) surface of metastable, cubic Co film epitaxially grown on a Fe substrate results in the formation of about 7 monolayers (ML) crystalline CoO film, in the typical rocksalt structure 45 o rotated with respect to the square unit mesh of the underlying Co film. We investigated the stability of this oxide layer upon annealing in the RT-620 K temperature range, by means of primary-beam diffraction modulated electron emission (PDMEE), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). For temperatures up to 570 K, film thickness and local order are preserved, in spite of an increasing number of Co and O atoms bonded in sites of reduced coordination. For larger temperatures, thickness also reduces, but the oxide film is still characterized by a high degree of CoO-like local order.