CAIRO, November 22, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - US President George W. Bush planned to bomb pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera but he was talked out of the idea by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, according to a British daily report Tuesday, November 22, citing a Downing Street memo marked "Top Secret".

"There's no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it," the Daily Mirror quoted an unnamed source as commenting on the leaked memo.

The five-page transcript of a conversation between Bush and Blair during the Prime Minister's April 16, 2004 visit to Washington reportedly shows Bush wanted to attack the satellite channel's headquarters.

According to the Mirror, Blair feared such a strike, in the business district of Doha, the capital of Qatar, a key western ally in the Gulf, would spark revenge attacks.

The Mirror said such a strike would have been "the most spectacular foreign policy disaster since the Iraq war itself".

"He made clear he wanted to bomb Al-Jazeera in Qatar and elsewhere. Blair replied that would cause a big problem," the daily quoted as saying another British source.

While a government official suggested to the daily that the Bush threat had been "humorous, not serious", another source declared: "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men."

"We're still looking into the reports," Khanfar told IOL.

Al-Jazeera, on it part, said they were still studying the tabloid's report.

"We are still looking into the report and in short we'll declare our position on the tabloid's report," Waddah Khanfar, the broadcaster's General Manager, told IOL over the phone.

Commenting on the memo, a spokesman for Blair's Downing Street office told Agence France-Presse (AFP): "We have got nothing to say about this story. We don't comment on leaked documents."

The Mirror said the memo turned up in the office of then British lawmaker Tony Clarke, a member of Blair's Labour Party, in May 2004.

Civil servant David Keogh, 49, is accused under the Official Secrets Act of handing it to Clarke's former researcher Leo O'Connor, 42. Both are bailed to appear at Bow Street Magistrates Court in central London next week.

Clarke returned the memo to Downing Street. He said O'Connor had behaved "perfectly correctly".

He told Britain's domestic Press Association news agency that O'Connor had done "exactly the right thing" in bringing it to his attention.

Blair's former defense minister Peter Kilfoyle challenged Downing Street to publish the transcript.

"I hope the prime minister insists this memo be published," he told the Mirror.

The No 10 memo now raises fresh doubts over US claims that previous attacks against al-Jazeera staff were military errors, the Mirror said.

During the US military campaign against Afghanistan in 2001, Al-Jazeera gained worldwide fame after being the only news channel on the ground and giving detailed coverage, but the station's Kabul office was knocked out by two US smart bombs.

Chief editor of Arabic daily Al-Quds El-Arabi told Al-Jazeera the reports about the US administration's pondering of bombing the Doha-based all-news channel is just another proof of Washington's "complete negligence" of freedom of the press or human rights.

"Reporters and journalists are now voicing deep anger and fury at the US administration's reported intentions," Abdul Bari Atwan said.

Al-Jazeera has been severely criticized by Washington for its coverage of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.