BRITAIN: The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, battled yesterday to rise above a dispute sparked by claims of British spying at the United Nations.
But the furore showed no signs of dying down as former UN officials complained that their phones had been tapped.
Mr Blair steered clear of the bugging charge levelled by former minister Mr Clare Short but warned critics like her that, unless they buried their differences, they risked ousting his Labour Party from government.
"The threat . . . is the alliance that has attacked the Labour Party throughout its history: the alliance between some of our own folk, who are happy in opposition, and the Tory Party, who are desperate to get out of it," Mr Blair told a party conference in Scotland.
The fallout from Ms Short's claims proved relentless as the former UN secretary-general, Mr Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and two former arms inspectors said they believed they had been spied on.
"From the first day I entered my office they told me: beware, your office is bugged, your residence is bugged," Mr Boutros-Ghali told the BBC.
"It is a tradition that member states that have the technical capacity to bug will do it without hesitation," he said.
Ms Short, who was in government when London and Washington were seeking UN backing to attack Iraq, started a diplomatic storm with her claim on Thursday that Britain bugged the offices of the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, in the run-up to the war.
A UN spokesman, Mr Fred Eckhard, said Mr Annan would seek a fuller explanation from Britain's UN ambassador. "It's safe to say he would like a fuller explanation," Mr Eckhard told reporters in New York. "I suppose when ambassador (Emyr) Jones Parry returns from London there might be a chance for the two to have an exchange."
Mr Eckhard had on Thursday said any attempt to eavesdrop on the secretary general was illegal, should stop and would violate three international treaties.
Ms Short's remarks thwarted Mr Blair's efforts to focus on the domestic agenda ahead of an expected 2005 general election.
Ms Short, who resigned after the war, said she had seen transcripts of Mr Annan's conversations and that the spying "was being done for some time". Mr Blair has declined to address the charge, beyond saying British security services acted within domestic and international law.
But Mr Richard Butler, a former chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq, added his voice to the spying row, saying, "There was abundant evidence that we were being constantly monitored. I had to go to the basement cafe in the UN where there was heaps of noise or I'd go and take a walk in Central Park and keep walking" to avoid eavesdroppers, he told BBC Radio.
His successor, Dr Hans Blix, also said he believed that his telephone had been tapped, according to media reports from Australia. The allegations could hinder Mr Blair's efforts to regain the public's trust. - (Reuters)