BBC insists Katrina coverage impartial

The BBC told AFP that it had received no complaint from Blair's office and said that its coverage of last month's natural disaster "was committed solely to relaying the event fully, accurately and impartially".

Downing Street meanwhile refused to comment.

One major British newspaper and a former leading BBC journalist hit out also at the criticism which Murdoch, chairman of the media conglomerate News Corporation, attributed to Blair.

Murdoch told a seminar hosted by former US president Bill Clinton Friday in New York that Blair had described the BBC World Service radio's hurricane coverage as "full of hate" towards the United States.

"Tony Blair -- perhaps I shouldn't repeat this conversation -- told me yesterday that he was in Delhi last week, and he turned on the BBC World Service to see what was happening in New Orleans," Murdoch said.