One after the other the shutters in Washington came down on the European Union delegation, as soon as they mentioned Echelon. No one in the US Government would even admit that the electronic spying system, the most powerful in the world, even existed. And if it did, they made clear, they would rather not go into it. One after the other the shutters in Washington came down on the European Union delegation, as soon as they mentioned Echelon. No one in the US Government would even admit that the electronic spying system, the most powerful in the world, even existed. And if it did, they made clear, they would rather not go into it.The National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department and even the Department of Commerce refused to talk to the committee of MEPs on a fact-finding trip this month. Stonewalled wherever they turned, they left, angry and frustrated, cutting short their trip.Yesterday, as the European Parliament's groundbreaking report into the global spy network was published in Brussels, the MEPs who had been left out in the cold knew who to blame.

Not just the US authorities but the British government, they are convinced, which had colluded in the obstruction.The 108-page report, the fruit of seven months of investigation by the parliament, did nothing to dampen the controversy and acrimony long associated with the clandestine network, and raised fresh, disturbing questions.Echelon was set up during the Cold War by the US, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia to collate electronic intelligence. The network has grown to keep pace with the explosion in information technology. Today the spy system gives 55,000 British and American operatives access to data gathered by 120 spy satellites worldwide. Every minute of every day, the system can process three million electronic communications.The spy network is very much an Anglo-American show, with the Americans as senior partners, run from Fort Meade in Maryland, Menwith Hill, North Yorkshire and GCHQ at Cheltenham, although 750 Americans operate an intercept station in Germany near Bad Aibling, taken over by the US Army in 1952.One of Echelon's primary roles has been to gather industrial espionage from European companies for US ones, say some intelligence experts.

The French were said to have lost a $6bn contract for Airbus with the Saudi government to Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, thanks to Echelon intercepts of faxes and telephone calls. There has also been scathing criticism of Britain ­ and its obsession with secrecy ­ from European partners for having its allegiance over the spy system with the "Anglo-Saxon" club rather than with Europe.The MEPs who began their investigation were alarmed at learning their mobile phones be used to track their movements and could be transformed into bugging devices; the technology had been invented to shut off the ringer and download conversations.But in yesterday's revealing report, the MEPs did not prove all the claims made about the spy system. They failed to prove conclusively that Echelon had been used by the US, or indeed Britain, for commercial spying on European competitors. And its scope is not as extensive as had been feared.But the report warned businesses and ordinary individuals that they are being spied on and that users should encrypt their e-mails. It said: "That a global system for intercepting communications exists .. is no longer in doubt. They do tap into private, civilian and corporate communications."Impotent to do anything much about America, the MEPs pointed out that Britain could be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.