London: In a sensational revelation, a former Minister today (Feb 26, 2004) claimed that Britain had spied on the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in the run-up to the Iraq war, a charge immediately rejected by Prime Minister Tony Blair who termed it "deeply irresponsible".

"The UK in this time was also getting, spying on Kofi Annan's office and getting reports from him about what was going on," said Claire Short, who resigned as International Development Secretary protesting Britain's decision to join the US-led invasion of Iraq.

She made the revelation in an interview to BBC Radio 4's 'Today' programme while commenting on the Government's decision to drop legal proceedings under Official Secrets Act against Katharine Gun, a former translator with the British spy centre, who leaked a confidential memo raising concerns about spying in the United Nations.

Blair told a press conference at Downing Street, "We and previous Governments have never commented on intelligence, except to say that this country acts in accordance with domestic and international law."

He said, "I think the fact that those allegations were made I think is deeply irresponsible."

Short, asked whether British spies had been instructed to carry out operations within the United Nations on people such as Kofi Annan, said, "Yes, absolutely."

"I know, I have seen transcripts of Kofi Annan's conversations," she said.

"Indeed, I have had conversations with Kofi in the run-up to war thinking 'Oh dear, there will be a transcript of this and people will see what he and I are saying'," Short said.

When asked if it was legal, Short said, "I don't know. I presume so. It's odd. I don't know about the legalities."

But what mattered was the broader legality of the Iraq war, she added.

Without directly commenting on the spying allegations on the UN Secretary General, Blair said, "I have huge respect for Kofi Annan. He is a personal friend as well as someone for whom I have the greatest political respect. We work extremely well with the UN."

Gun had been accused of leaking a secret e-mail from US intelligence services sent in January 2003, allegedly requesting UK help in bugging some non-aligned UN Security Council members ahead of the Iraq war. Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea and Pakistan were named in the memo as targets of the bugging effort.

Blair did not directly comment on the Gun case. Instead, he expressed concern about security leaks at a time when Britain was "going thought a very dangerous situation".

"We are going to be in a very dangerous situation as a country if people feel they can simply spill out secrets or details of security operations - whether false or true, actually - and get away with it," he said.