LONDON - HE'S the spy who came in from the beach.

Sir John Sawers - the newly appointed head of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency - found himself at the centre of allegations of a security breach after his holiday snapshots and family details were posted by his wife on her Facebook page.

The photos were removed after a local newspaper contacted the Foreign Office. 'It's not a state secret that he wears Speedo swimming trunks,' said Foreign Secretary David Miliband. 'For goodness' sake, let's grow up.'

Sir John, named last month as the head of the Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, is a former spy, diplomat and foreign policy adviser to former prime minister Tony Blair. He is currently Britain's ambassador to the United Nations and is due to take up his new post in November.

The pictures, posted by Lady Shelly Sawers, showed Sir John posing with his children, wearing a Santa hat and playing Frisbee on a beach, the Mail on Sunday reported.

Publishing the story on its front page and the pictures in a double-page spread, the newspaper said the information 'could potentially be useful to hostile foreign powers or terrorists'.

In what it called an 'extraordinary lapse', the Mail said personal information on the social networking website included vacation photos, details about the couple's three children, the location of their London home and that of Sir John's parents.

It also included information on the couple's friendships with senior diplomats and actors, the BBC said.

Lady Sawers had not imposed privacy protection on her account, allowing any of Facebook's 200million users in the open-access 'London' network to see the entries, the Mail said.

The episode has sparked an uproar in Britain, where the identity of the MI6 chief - known as C - was kept secret until the 1990s. -- AP

Please read the full story in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.