LONDON - THE publishers of Britain's biggest-selling newspapers insisted on Friday that their journalists had not paid private detectives to hack into the mobile phones of thousands of celebrities.

It was News International's first detailed statement on the affair which flared up on Thursday.

The Guardian newspaper alleged that reporters at the News of the World tabloid, Britain's biggest-selling weekly paper, hired private investigators to hack into the phones and private data of government ministers, actors, singers, football stars, models and novelists.

The Guardian said the Sunday newspaper's publishers had paid more than one million pounds (S$2.3 million) out of court to suppress three legal cases involving phone tapping, which would have revealed evidence about the scale of the practice at the paper.

Once case involved Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association union, who it said received 400,000 pounds in compensation.

Clive Goodman, News of the World's royal editor, was jailed in 2007 along with a private investigator after the phone messages of aides to Prince William, second in line to the throne, were illegally accessed.

News International said the only other evidence connecting News of the World to accessing voicemails emerged during a case brought by Taylor. It did not elaborate on what emerged during the litigation.

It said: 'From our own investigation, but more importantly that of the police, we can state with confidence that, apart from the matters referred to above, there is not and never has been evidence to support allegations that: '- News of the World journalists have accessed the voicemails of any individual.

'- News of the World or its journalists have instructed private investigators or other third parties to access the voicemails of any individuals.

'- There was systemic corporate illegality by News International to suppress evidence.' -- AFP