Britain’s alleged bugging of U.N. chief illegal

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations said Thursday that alleged British bugging of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s office is illegal if proved true.

It was the world body’s first reaction to allegations by a former member of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Cabinet that Britain spied on Annan in the run-up to the U.S.-led Iraq war.

“We would be disappointed if this were true,” U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said. “Such activities would undermine the integrity and confidential nature of diplomatic exchanges. Those who speak to the secretary-general are entitled to assume that their exchanges are confidential.”

Clare Short, who resigned as Britain’s international development secretary shortly after last year’s campaign to topple Saddam Hussein, said in a BBC interview that British intelligence agents spied on Annan ahead of the Iraqi invasion in March 2003.

Blair refused to say whether the allegation was true but called Short “deeply irresponsible.”