Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Friday he would hand over text messages and emails to a press ethics inquiry over claims that he broke the rules in his dealings with Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
The minister has faced calls to resign after it emerged that his department leaked details to Murdoch's US-based News Corp. about its bid for full control of satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
Hunt said he would submit all emails and texts that he sent to his former special adviser Adam Smith, who resigned on Wednesday saying that his "activities at times went too far."
It was Hunt's job to assess whether the government should approve the BSkyB bid in the face of opposition from other media groups who feared it would give the Murdochs too much influence over the British media.
"I will be handing over all my private texts and emails to my special adviser to the Leveson Inquiry," Hunt, who also has responsibility for the London Olympics, told reporters outside his London home.
"I am confident that they will vindicate the position that I handled the BSkyB merger process with total integrity."
The Leveson Inquiry was set up by Prime Minister David Cameron last year to look into the phone-hacking scandal at Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid, and into relations between the press, politicians and police.
Cameron has refused to open a separate government investigation into whether Hunt breached the ministerial code, saying that Hunt will address the claims when he appears before the Leveson Inquiry.
But Simon Hughes, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, the junior partners in the coalition government along with Cameron's Conservatives, added his voice to calls for a government inquiry.
"What I cannot understand is why the matter of the ministerial code of conduct, which is to do with do you take responsibility for your special adviser, is not something the Prime Minister should immediately refer to the person who has been given the job of doing that," Hughes told BBC TV.
Smith resigned after texts and emails between him and a News Corp. lobbyist, Frederic Michel, emerged during testimony by Rupert Murdoch's son James to the Leveson Inquiry.
Source: AFP European Edition
