Macedonian government admits bugging foreign embassies

A telephone-bugging scandal in Macedonia is widening, after the government admitted that among the targets were foreign embassies.

The Macedonian prime minister, Ljubco Gorgievski, said there were five or six instances, but gave no details.

The scandal broke last November, when the opposition said it had evidence of the bugging of a hundred-and-seventy politicians, intellectuals, and journalists, including President Boris Trajkovski.

The Macedonian Interior Minister, Dosta Dimovska, resigned after a parliamentary inquiry decided only her ministry had the facilities to carry out the wire-tapping.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service