Others were less forgiving and one Foreign Office official said that "Mr. Brown was as tired and emotional as a newt."

'Justice requires the handing over of these people, but expediency, I fear, militates against it,' wrote a Foreign Office official in a report.

"Four is more acceptable than nine," said a Foreign Office official.

Patent Office officials said they did not impose a formal moratorium on transgenic animals.

Patent Office officials said the data base could run on an I.B.M.

A senior Foreign Office official contacted the university in 2002 as part of efforts to establish better relations with the Libyan regime, according to a report.

Office officials concede this is likely should a complaint be filed by a nonpurchasing tenant.

A more ambitious idea came from a Foreign Office official - this was to allow the two countries to operate internationally as a 'single unit' after the war.

Indeed a Foreign Office official in 1947 expected trade and international finance to be the areas most likely to test the relations of the two countries "over the next few years".

The university's principal, Sir David Smith, said neither ministers nor Scottish Office officials appear to have given any real thought to some of the practical implications.