The British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, may not have known that his intelligence services were eavesdropping on the United Nations Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan.
This was suggested last night by the former cabinet minister Ms Clare Short, who caused a storm when she alleged last week that the United Kingdom was spying on the UN's top official in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq.
However, she expressed doubt last night that Mr Blair actually knew about the operation.
"I'm not at all sure that he knew it was going on. He's not a great one for detail, our prime minister," she told the philosophical society in Trinity College Dublin.
As an alternative course of action, she considered informing the secretary general directly: "I thought about writing to Kofi, but then I thought, reporting the British security services to him is a complicated thing to do, and anyway what would he do?"
She was puzzled by Mr Blair's reaction to her revelation: "For some reason our prime minister has taken this very personally and accused me of undermining the security of the state and our intelligence agencies."
According to Ms Short, Mr Blair could have reacted differently: "His response could have been, 'That's a very serious allegation, I'll have inquiries made'."
She added: "I don't consider that I have endangered in any way whatsoever any legitimate British interests or anyone who works in the security \."
Ms Short said she had no regrets about her action. "I am absolutely clear. I did it deliberately, I agree with myself doing it. It is widely suggested from the UN that what was being done was illegal: it was certainly insidious, destructive and disrespectful of Kofi Annan and his office, with no legitimate British interests being protected by doing so, and I still agree with myself doing it."
She had taken a conscious decision to do it: "I did it deliberately and I did it in order that it be brought to an end, and I had intended to do it."
Asked if she regarded Mr Blair as dishonest, she replied: "There is no doubt there was dishonesty and it is being revealed step by step."