WELLINGTON (AFP) -- The head of one of New Zealand's spy agencies broke cover Tuesday to deny charges his organization is a "lackey" of U.S. and British interests.

Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) director Warren Tucker issued an unprecedented statement published in a number of New Zealand newspapers following controversy over the role of New Zealand's spy agencies.

Tucker said he wanted to put the record straight over public debate sparked by the inadvertent release to a newspaper this month of the GCSB's top secret annual report for 1985-86.

The report was among papers belonging to former New Zealand prime minister David Lange, who died last year, which were released to a newspaper by the National Archive.

The report showed New Zealand spied on UN diplomatic communications and a number of friendly countries, including Japan and Pacific Island nations as part of an intelligence sharing network with other Anglo-Saxon countries. This raised allegations New Zealand spy agencies were putting US and British interests ahead of those of New Zealand. Tucker said throughout his 29-year career with the GCSB, which gathers intelligence by monitoring foreign communications, he was aware of no circumstances in which U.S. or British interests were put first.

"The GCSB's actions have been and remain entirely consistent with, and subordinate to, the policies and interests of the New Zealand government of the day," he said.

"Far from being the 'lackey' of American or British 'puppet masters', New Zealand enjoys immense benefits from its membership of this longstanding partnership," he said.

He said New Zealand's intelligence-sharing with the U.S., Britain, Australia and Canada had not compromised the country's independence in foreign policy.

He cited New Zealand's anti-nuclear legislation, which saw it lose ally status with the United States in 1985, and its decision not to join in combat operations in Iraq as proof of its independence.

Tucker also denied claims that the government, including Lange during his term as prime minister from 1984 to 1989, was kept in the dark about the activities of the GCSB.

After leaving Parliament, Lange claimed not to have known the extent of New Zealand's involvement in the electronic spy network.

But Tucker said Lange had been regularly briefed by the then head of the organization and any suggestion he was unaware of what the GCSB was doing while he was prime minister "is simply wrong".

He also denied that two communications monitoring stations were "U.S. bases in disguise".

The GCSB is one of two New Zealand spy organizations. The other is the Security Intelligence Service.