MPs could summon Rebekah Brooks to answer for phone hacking scandal

The Commons media committee also said it wants to question News Corporation's Rupert and James Murdoch, but cannot force them to appear as they are not UK citizens.

Rupert Murdoch shut down the News of the World newspaper just over a week ago over and dropped his bid to control British satellite broadcasting network BSkyB amid mounting scandals over the alleged hacking of phones belonging to crime victims, politicians and celebrities.

On Tuesday, the Commons Culture Committee invited Brooks and the Murdochs to give evidence about the phone-hacking scandal at the House of Commons.

In a statement, the MPs said that serious questions had arisen about the evidence Brooks and the News of the World's former editor Andy Coulson gave at a previous hearing in 2003. Reports of Andy Coulson's impending arrest have already surfaced. After working at News of the World, Coulson went on to be hired as David Cameron's head of communications in 2010.

Conservative UK MP Louise Mensch, who is a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said the Murdochs should take the opportunity to appear before it on Tuesday next week.

"We have powers over British citizens, in other words over Mrs Brooks,” she said. "Rupert and James Murdoch are American citizens, we don't have any power over them, but I think it would surprise everybody if they were to have the guts to show up.”

She said their appearance at the sittings “would show a little bit of leadership” and “would be the first step in lancing this giant boil.”

She urged them to appear before a select committee of Parliament and to have “the courage to show up and answer the questions."

News International however declined to comment on who might attend the committee.

It comes after Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, whose UK arm News International owns newspapers the Sun, the Times, the Sunday Times and the now closed News of the World, dropped a bid to take complete control of broadcaster BSkyB.

UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt had referred News Corporation's bid to acquire the 61% of shares it does not already own in satellite broadcaster BSkyB to the Competition Commission.

Despite the company's announcement, MPs from the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and smaller parties backed a Labour motion condemning the plans without the need for a vote.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown spoke out in the Commons against alleged law-breaking on an "industrial scale" at News International. He also said there were no private deals with the company when he was in Downing Street.

Meanwhile, Democratic senator Jay Rockefeller has also called on US authorities to determine whether journalists working for News Corp had broken US law.

Rockefeller, who chairs the Senate's Commerce Committee, expressed concern that phone hacking may have extended to American targets, including victims of 9/11, although he presented no evidence.

More congressmen, including the first major Republican, Peter King, called for a federal investigation into News Corp's actions.

Others included senators Frank Lautenberg, Robert Menendez and Barbara Boxer.

Rupert Murdoch's American assets include the Wall Street Journal and Fox News.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has announced the terms of an independent and judge-led inquiry into the hacking affair, which he said would examine the practices of the press.