British PM regrets hiring ex-Murdoch editor

Prime Minister David Cameron made a public admission of regret over Britain's phone-hacking scandal Wednesday, saying with hindsight he would not have hired a former tabloid editor as his media chief.

In a stormy emergency session of parliament, Cameron defended his original decision to employ ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who quit Downing Street in January and was arrested this month over the scandal at the paper, since shut by Rupert Murdoch.

But a day after cutting short a trip to Africa to confront the crisis, the under-pressure Conservative leader conceded he would not have employed Coulson had he been able to predict the furore of recent weeks.

"With 20-20 hindsight and all that has followed, I would not have offered him the job and I expect that he wouldn't have taken it," Cameron said, raising his voice over heckling from opposition lawmakers in the House of Commons.

"You live and you learn and believe you me, I have learned."

Cameron refused to cut Coulson loose, however, telling lawmakers: "I have an old-fashioned view about innocent until proven guilty but if it turns out I have been lied to that would be a moment for a profound apology."

Opposition Labour party leader Ed Miliband demanded a full apology from Cameron, accusing him of ignoring repeated reports and warnings over Coulson.

"It was a deliberate attempt to hide from the facts about Mr Coulson," Miliband said.

A day after Murdoch gave testimony to British lawmakers over the scandal on what he described as "the most humble day of my life", it was Cameron's turn to take the heat over the controversy. Cameron has come under intense pressure over hiring of Coulson shortly after the journalist quit as editor of the News of the World in 2007 when the paper's royal editor and a private investigator were jailed for hacking. AFP