January 17, 2006

Downing Street has denied for the first time claims US President George Bush had to be talked out of bombing the TV station al-Jazeera by Tony Blair. Tony Blair's official spokesman said a memo about the Bush-Blair conversation does not refer to bombing al-Jazeera. The Daily Mirror reported in November the memo showed Mr Bush had considered taking such action in 2004.

The denial came after al-Jazeera applied to see the relevant part of the memo under freedom of information laws.

'Firm denial'

At the time of the original story a Downing Street spokesman said: "We have got nothing to say about this story. We don't comment on leaked documents."

The White House said at the time the story was "outlandish".

On Tuesday, the Downing Street spokesman said: "We are saying this because a specific allegation, despite our firm denial, has been repeated over and over again."

Launched in 1996, al-Jazeera is best known outside of the Arab world for carrying exclusive al-Qaeda messages.

The station is based in Qatar, a close ally of Washington's and the location of US military headquarters during the Iraq war.

Private

The Downing Street spokesman said that the memo "doesn't refer to bombing the al-Jazeera television station in Qatar."

Asked if it referred to another of the station's bureaux, he replied: "I'm not aware of any suggestion of bombing any al-Jazeera television station."

Asked again if it referred to bombing any al-Jazeera bureau anywhere, the spokesman replied: "The answer to that is equally no."

He added: "We are saying this because a specific allegation, despite our firm attempts at denial, has been repeated over and over and I think it's right to clarify that.

"But it's equally wrong to release details of a very private conversation the prime minister has with world leaders.

"There's a freedom of information request in. We will reply within 20 working days."