France's top newspaper says it has proof government spied on its reporters

Last year, the government was embarrassed by leaks in Le Monde revealing details of an investigation into links between the then labour minister, Eric Woerth, and Europe's richest woman L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. An investigating magistrate was subsequently removed from his job, suspected of being the source of the leaks.

At the time, Le Monde said it had been spied on. But this week, it said it could now prove it and ran a banner headline: 'how the secret services spied on Le Monde.'

Gerard Davet, the journalist whose source was unmasked, said on Friday that an independent magistrate appointed to look into Le Monde's allegations, had obtained evidence that the secret services had forced his cellphone operator to come up with his detailed phone bills.

This week, Interior Minister Claude Gueant admitted 'technical recovery' methods had been used.

But Davet said the investigating magistrate had discovered that the secret services had actually forced his provider to hand over his detailed bills to the secret services for analysis. Data handed over included numbers called and geolocalisation data.

Davet said this could not have been done without the knowledge of the highest authorities in France.

"The moral of all this is that the French government, Nicolas Sarkozy included, lied by saying they had only made technical recoveries and they sought only to identify a technical advisor who was leaking information. The truth is they wanted to silence the press' sources, and silence Le Monde's sources, and they broke the law to do so," Davet said.

He added: "the independent judge did what she had to do from the start. She obtained through Orange, the telecoms provider, the requisitions addressed by the counterespionage team. And in these requisitions, it appears very clearly that I was targeted by counterespionage, and I also know after an enquiry I conducted, that those orders were given by the Elysee."