Islamabad: Pakistan's Embassy in Britain was the target of a bugging operation by British intelligence agency MI5, for which it used an undercover building contractor last year, a media report in Islamabad said.

Pakistan's mission in London was the unnamed embassy referred to in a London 'Sunday Times' report, Pakistani newspaper 'Daily Times' quoted Foreign Office officials as saying.

"The report published in the British press did not mention the Pakistani High Commission by name, but we know it is our High Commission. We are taking up the matter with the British Foreign Office through our high commission," it quoted a Pakistani official as saying

The plan to bug the Pakistan mission appeared to have been authorised by British Home Secretary David Blunkett, it said.

According to the 'Sunday Times', MI5 infiltrated the Embassy, stole codes used by Embassy staff to send secret messages, and planned to plant listening devices and remove sensitive documents.

The agent who started the operation quit before the extensive bugging planned could be carried out and later confessed his role to the Embassy.

PTI