Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, flanked by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (L), speaks about phone hacking to parliament in a still image taken from video in London July 20, 2011. Cameron on Wednesday defended the way his staff dealt with the police over allegations of phone-hacking and bribery at Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers.[Photo/Agencies]

LONDON -- British police are facing allegations that police officers leaked the details about terror attack victims and a murdered schoolgirl to journalists at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid.

The latest developments have increased the pressure on Murdoch as well as Prime Minister David Cameron.

The claims deepen the phone-hacking scandal surrounding the tabloid, which has shaken Murdoch's global media empire, felled two of Britain's top police officers and even dragged in Cameron.

According to the British Finance Minister's Office, Finance Minister George Osborne has met with executives and editors from Murdoch's News Corp. 16 times since the government took office last year.

The newly released list of meetings is likely to add pressure on Cameron's coalition over its extensive ties with Murdoch. Cameron himself has also come under pressure due to his decision to employ Andy Coulson, former editor of the tabloid, as his media chief.

The scandal erupted a few weeks ago with allegations that journalists at the News of the World hacked the phone of a 13-year-old murdered schoolgirl while police were still searching for her. Arrests followed, top police officials quit, and Murdoch and his son, James, were brought before a parliamentary committee, where they said they were unaware of any wrongdoing.

Murdoch has now closed the News of the World and personally apologized to the schoolgirl's parents. News Corp. was forced by the scandal to scrap its bid for full control of pay-TV giant BSkyB earlier this month.

James Murdoch, chairman of News International, the News Corp. subsidiary responsible for its British newspapers, has now been challenged over evidence he gave before parliament's media scrutiny committee, with calls for a police probe into his claims that he did not know hacking was more widespread.

Judge Brian Leveson on Thursday opened an inquiry into the hacking scandal and it is unclear how far it may affect James, with his position in the company potentially in jeopardy.

Other British newspapers have also been dragged into the row with former journalists at the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror -- Murdoch's main British tabloid rivals -- saying phone-hacking was rife at their papers too.

For now, a key question that has yet to be addressed is to what extent other newspapers hacked the voice mails of celebrities and others in an attempt to garner gossip deemed worthy of print.

The slow pace of investigative work, the challenge of untangling evidence in seized documents and confidentiality clauses in settlements between newspapers and plaintiffs mean it could take months or years to uncover the full extent of wrongdoing, if it happens at all.

Furthermore, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating whether the alleged phone hacking by Murdoch's media empire violated U.S. laws. But any resolution may well have to await the outcome of British investigations.

Meanwhile, Guardian reporter Nick Davies, who spent years investigating phone hacking, has been signed to write an authoritative account of the News Corp. scandal for Faber and Faber Inc.

The book, to be titled "Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught up with the World's Most Powerful Man," will be published in the fall of 2012.