LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday denied receiving any details of a reported U.S. proposal to bomb the Arabic news channel Al Jazeera.
The Daily Mirror newspaper reported last week that a secret British government memo said Blair had talked U.S. President George W. Bush out of bombing the broadcaster's Qatar headquarters last April.
The White House has dismissed the report as "outlandish", while Blair's office has so far refused to comment.
Blair was asked in a written question to parliament made public on Monday "what information he received on action that the United States administration proposed to take against the Al Jazeera television channel?"
In a written response, Blair gave the one-word answer "none".
The question, published on the parliament Web site (http://www.parliament.uk), was tabled by lawmaker Adam Price, of the Welsh party Plaid Cymru.
A spokeswoman for Blair's Downing Street office made no further comment on the prime minister's response.
The Mirror's report was picked up by the world's media and prompted Al Jazeera to demand clarification from the United States and Britain.
The paper quoted an unnamed government official as suggesting Bush's threat was a joke, but added another unidentified source saying the U.S. president was serious.
At a London news conference late on Monday, the newspaper's associate editor Kevin Maguire said he did not believe the reported threat against the broadcaster was a joke.
"It is clear from the language used in the memo and its context that Tony Blair took it seriously and counselled against it. It certainly wasn't a joke," he said.
Al Jazeera has repeatedly denied U.S. accusations that it sides with insurgents in Iraq.
Al Jazeera's director general Waddah Khanfar, who flew to London last week to seek an explanation about the memo, said he was unsure what to believe, but Al Jazeera would not abandon the story until it gets an answer.
"I want not to believe it," he said.
Britain's attorney general has warned other media that they can be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act if they reveal further details of the memo.
Britain is prosecuting a civil servant and a parliamentarian's aide for leaking the secret memo.
