LONDON, 27 February 2004 — Britain spied on UN chief Kofi Annan before the Iraq war, former minister Clare Short said yesterday, threatening a fresh crisis for Prime Minister Tony Blair as he tries in vain to put the conflict behind him.

Blair declined to address the claim, beyond saying British security services acted within domestic and international law.

UN chief spokesman Fred Eckhard said the United Nations wanted “the action to stop if indeed it has been carried out. It undermines the secretary-general’s conduct of business with other leaders. It is therefore not good for the United Nations’ work and it is illegal.”

“We are throwing down a red flag and saying, ‘if this is true, then stop it,’” Eckhard said.

Short’s allegation comes a day after Britain dropped charges against a translator who admitted leaking a top-secret US document seeking London’s help in bugging United Nations members in the run-up to the war.

Short, who resigned after the war but was in government during the period when London and Washington sought UN authorization for military action, said Secretary-General Annan’s office had been specifically targeted. “In the case of Kofi’s office, it was being done for some time,” Short told BBC Radio. “I read some of the transcripts of the accounts of his conversations.”

Asked whether Britain was involved, she said: “Well I know, I have seen transcripts of Kofi Annan’s conversations. In fact 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.”’ Asked explicitly whether British spies had been instructed to carry out operations within the United Nations on people such as Annan, she said: “Yes, absolutely.”

Blair reacted angrily to his now frequent critic, saying she was undermining the intelligence services and British security as it faced a real threat from Islamic militants.

“The fact that those allegations were made... is deeply irresponsible,” he told a news conference in his Downing Street home. “We are going to be in a very dangerous situation as a country if people feel they can simply spill out secrets.”

On Wednesday, state prosecutors said they had insufficient evidence to prove 29-year-old translator Katharine Gun broke the Official Secrets Act although she freely admitted leaking a memo which she said revealed a US plot to spy on UN missions.

At that time, Britain and the US were desperately trying to persuade wavering members of the Security Council to vote in favor of war against Iraq.