U.N. Spy Allegations Widen

Former British minister Clare Short caused a sensation on Thursday when she claimed that the U.K. government spied on Kofi Annan in the months leading up to the war in Iraq. The allegations dominated British Prime Minister Tony Blair's monthly news conference, during which he refused to comment on what he said were matters of national security.

"Do not take that as an indication that the allegations made by Clare Short…are true," Blair cautioned reporters.

Still, analysts were quick to point out that -- true or not -- the allegations were a further dark cloud hanging over Blair's handling of the Iraq war, which has tarnished the reputation of the man once dubbed "Teflon Tony."

Now, there are fresh allegations that, in addition to spying on Kofi Annan, British or U.S. intelligence had also monitored former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix's mobile phone whenever he was in Iraq. Andrew Fowler, an investigative reporter at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, said he has the information from a source at Australia's intelligence agency.

"That's what I'm told, specifically each time he entered Iraq his phone was targeted and recorded and the transcripts were then made available to the United States, Australia, Canada, the U.K., and also New Zealand," Fowler said.

A spokesman for Australian Prime Minister John Howard has refused to comment on the claims.

Blair unable to put Iraq to rest

Speaking at the annual Labour Party conference in Scotland on Friday, Blair sought in vain to draw attention back to domestic issues. His image at home has taken a beating in the aftermath of the Iraq war. He's faced repeated questioning over the failure of U.S. and British forces to find any weapons of mass destruction, which were cited as the main reason for going to war.

Blair's office was also under scrutiny during an independent inquiry into the apparent suicide of a government weapons expert, David Kelly, who was a source for BBC reports that claimed the government exaggerated the threat from Saddam Hussein to win public support for the war. Although the inquiry cleared the government of any blame in Kelly's death, critics branded the inquiry a whitewash.

UN enraged

If the allegations that the U.K. has been spying on Annan are true, then such action is illegal and must stop immediately, said U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard. "We would be disappointed if this were true," he said. "Such activities would undermine the integrity and confidential nature of diplomatic exchanges."

On Friday, former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, told the BBC he wasn't surprised to hear claims that Annan's office had been bugged. "The perception was that you must know in advance that your office, your residence, your car, your phone was bugged," Boutros-Ghali said.

Former U.N. chief weapons inspector in Iraq, Richard Butler, also said he was aware that his phone was bugged when he served from 1997 to 1999.

The former British Cabinet minister who made the allegation, Clare Short, said she had read transcripts of Annan's conversations. She remains defiant following Blair's claims that her actions were "deeply irresponsible" and harmful to national security.

"There is no national interest here, there is absolutely no threat to the security services from me making this public," Short said.

Row triggered by trial collapse

Short made the allegation a day after the collapse of the trial of Katharine Gun, a British government translator who had been accused of leaking a secret e-mail from U.S. spies apparently requesting help from Britain in bugging U.N. delegates in the run up to the Iraq war.

Gun admitted that she leaked the memo, saying "any disclosures were justified because they exposed serious illegality and wrongdoing on the part of the U.S. government, who attempted to subvert our own security services."

Gun walked free from the Old Bailey criminal court in London on Wednesday after prosecutors said they would offer no evidence against her. Legal experts had predicted the collapse of the case, saying the government would wish to avoid a trial in which the legality of the Iraq war would have again come under question.