Conman Foster takes on UK paper

Peter Foster has been involved in slimming pill scams

The conman at the heart of the Cherie Blair row has asked a Brisbane court to stop a UK newspaper publishing details of his dealings with Tony Blair.

Lawyers for Peter Foster have insisted the case against the Daily Mail will involve UK national security.

Foster reportedly signed a lucrative deal with the paper to serialise his memoirs, A Question of Deceit.

He has said the material was for reference only, to be used to corroborate the book.

Lawyers for Foster, who has been jailed for fraud on three continents, say the case also involves "sensitive information" involving world figures.

The categoric fact is that the Mail has no plans to publish any allegations made by Peter Foster about the Blairs Daily Mail

Foster has claimed he provided the newspaper with details of e-mails and conversations he had had with the Prime Minister.

The information is, he insists, so sensitive it is not meant to be made public.

The former boxing promoter's lawyers have argued the Daily Mail has refused to return the documents even though it has no legal right to keep them.

They want Brisbane Supreme Court to stop certain material being published.

Foster came to prominence in late 2002 when it emerged he negotiated the purchase of two flats in Bristol for Cherie Blair.

The prime minister's wife was then forced to make a public apology for her misjudgement in getting involved with a criminal who had been jailed in Britain, Australia and the US.

A spokesman for the Daily Mail said: "The categoric fact is that the Mail has no plans to publish any allegations made by Peter Foster about the Blairs.

"It has already been reported in both Australia and Britain that Richard Shears, a freelance writer based in Sydney who works for the Mail amonst others, has had a deal with Foster to produce a biography."

Alasdair Pepper, a partner at media lawyers Carter-Ruck, told BBC News Online that the effect of any injunction taken out in Australia on the Mail would depend on its terms and whether parent company Associated Newspapers had any assets there.

But he pointed our injunctions "do not usually cross jurisdictions" and plaintiffs would normally take out injunctions in the other affected countries.