MELBOURNE, Australia - Former British prime minister Tony Blair on Tuesday described phone hacking by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp as "despicable", but said he did not believe it had happened to him.

Blair, who was in power during the years much of the hacking allegedly took place, would not comment on whether 80-year-old Murdoch should resign from the global empire he has built over decades.

But he weighed into the debate with comments on media relations.

"Obviously what happened in relation to the hacking was pretty despicable," he told journalists in Melbourne at a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Britain's former leader said it was important that inquiries "get to the bottom of what has happened" after the now-defunct News of the World tabloid was revealed to have accessed the mobile phone voicemails of well-known people.

But he said he did not think his messages were among those of the politicians, celebrities and journalists accessed by the paper because he did not carry a phone when he was leader, from 1997 to 2007.

"When I was prime minister of the UK I never had a mobile phone -which nowadays I think was a real advantage for me," Blair said.

"So I've never thought that it was possible that I would be (hacked). But I honestly have no idea."

Blair, in Australia on a speaking tour, refused to be drawn on whether Australian-born Murdoch should resign.

"Everyone agrees that the hacking of that poor girl's phone was despicable," he said in reference to teenage murder victim Milly Dowler whose phone was hacked after she went missing.

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 07/27/2011 page12)