Jack Straw was today refusing to give details of his involvement in the UN bugging controversy except to say that he and the government had not broken the law.

His comments follow a demand by Ribble Valley Tory MP Nigel Evans that the Blackburn Cabinet Minister revealed what he authorised MI6 and the GCHQ Listening Centre to do.

As Foreign Secretary Mr Straw is officially in charge of both and would have had to agree to any covert operations at the UN Headquarters in New York.

Mr Straw endorsed Tony Blair's condemnation of former International Development Secretary Clare Short for alleging that British spies had bugged UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and that she had read transcripts of his conversations.

With claims now made that UN Chief Weapons Inspectors Hans Blix and Richard Butler had also been bugged, pressure is growing at Westminster for Mr Straw and Mr Blair to reveal details of what went on.

And there is also growing pressure for them to reveal the advice on the legality of the war on Iraq given by Attorney General Lord Goldsmith.

Mr Straw said: "I fully endorse the Prime Minister's comments that Clare was utterly irresponsible.

"Clare voted for military action and this decision was not based on intelligence.

"It was based on what people can see with their eyes about Saddam's behaviour."

Asked what he knew about any bugging and whether it was true he said: "I can't discuss that. We all know that people in positions of responsibility should not do anything to damage the operations of the security and intelligence services or the national interest.

"Therefore I cannot go into details about the security services.

"As I can't confirm or deny what Clare Short said I obviously can't comment on the details.

"All I can say is that the operations the government and the security services are closely controlled by the law and those of us with responsibility take our responsibilities in that respect very seriously indeed."

But Mr Evans was not satisfied he said: "Jack Straw should come clean. He cant' just hide behind national security."