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usmc4669
02-28-04, 12:22 PM
By MICHAEL McDONOUGH





LONDON (AP) - A former British ambassador to the United Nations said Friday he wouldn't be surprised if countries engaged in spying at U.N. headquarters. Former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said he always assumed he was an espionage target.

And in Australia, former U.N. chief weapons inspector Richard Butler said it was "plainly silly" to think his phone calls were not being monitored during his tenure.

The debate surrounding espionage at the United Nations deepened after allegations that Britain spied on U.N. officials before the Iraq war.

Clare Short, former international development secretary in Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet, said Thursday she had read transcripts of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's conversations and that Britain had been spying on his office in the build-up to the Iraq war. She quit her job last year over Blair's Iraq policy and has since been a vocal critic of the prime minister, repeatedly urging him to resign.