UNITED NATIONS, Feb 13: Former Ambassador of Mexico, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser on Thursday charged "it was common knowledge the United States had spied on UN delegations in the run-up to the war in Iraq."

The Mexican government acknowledged on Wednesday that it sent a letter in December asking the United States and Britain to explain recent accusations of spying on United Nations delegations.

Mr Aguilar Zinser was recalled as Mexico's UN ambassador in November for saying the United States treated its southern neighbour like its "back yard." But he was at the United Nations when the alleged spying would have taken place.

A London paper reported last year that the US National Security Agency had begun a "surge" of extra eavesdropping on officials from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, Guinea and Pakistan, all key Security Council members at the time.

The Observer newspaper reported Saturday that British intelligence acted on a US request for help in eavesdropping on UN delegates' home and office telephones before the war.

It said the American request was contained in a National Security Agency memo leaked to the newspaper last year. Mr Aguilar Zinser told a news agency that Washington had violated international law and Mexico should seek an explanation from the State Department.