The Press Complaints Commission dismissed allegations by the Guardian newspaper that reporters at Murdoch's News of the World tabloid frequently hacked into the voice mail of celebrities and politicians and tried to suppress evidence of the hacking.

The News of the World's royal editor, Clive Goodman, was jailed in January 2007 for hacking into the phones of palace officials, and his accomplice, private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, was also jailed for hacking into the messages, including some from Princes William and Harry.

The Guardian claimed in July that that the practice was widespread at the newspaper at the time. It reported that the News of the World _ the country's most popular Sunday paper _ paid private investigators to obtain voice mail messages, private phone numbers, bank statements and other information about as many as 3,000 public figures, from late reality TV star Jade Goody to former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

The Press Complaints Commission, an independent body that deals with complaints about the press, said it had looked into whether there is any evidence that phone message hacking had continued since 2007, and whether it was misled by the News Of the World during its investigation into the Goodman case.

"The PCC has seen no new evidence to suggest that the practice of phone message tapping was undertaken by others beyond Goodman and Mulcaire, or evidence that News of the World executives knew about Goodman and Mulcaire's activities," it said in its report.

It added that it has "no evidence that the practice of phone message tapping is ongoing."

London police and British prosecutors have already said they have no plans to investigate the Guardian's allegations.

The Guardian said the Press Complaints Commission had not investigated the case thoroughly.

"This complacent report shows that the PCC does not have the ability, the budget or the procedures to conduct its own investigations," The Guardian said in a statement. "Doubtless because of its restricted powers, the PCC has, unlike Nick Davies (the Guardian reporter who made researched the story), not spoken to a single person involved in the widespread past practice of phone hacking, limiting its own original inquiries to an exchange of letters with someone who was not even at the News of the World at the time of the hacking."

News International, which owns News Group Newspapers, including the News of the World, declined to comment on the report. The company has in the past said that the Goodman cases were the only incidents of phone hacking.