After a scandal broke about telephone tapping of President Nikolic and Minister Vucic, the premier Dacic told the Belgrade-based TV Prva television station on Friday that as far as he knew "the crime investigation police directorate has requested phone records, without being aware that the request refers to the telephone of Aleksandar Vucic."

Asked whether he, being the minister of the interior, was involved in this case, Dacic said that had nothing to do with it and that the scandal concerned the police "given that there is no clear system of control and supervision of actions".

"Such things must not happen and I think that the Interior Ministry needs changes," he said announcing invitation for applications for the country's chief police director.

An investigation into the phone tapping scandal will be conducted by the parliament's committee for supervising security services.

Serbia should become a society in which it is impossible to tap telephone conversations of top state officials in an unauthorised and unlawful way, the committee's chairwoman Jadranka Joksimovic told the Tanjug news agency. Joksimovic is an official of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) led by Vucic. The SNS was founded by Nikolic who was at the helm of that political party until he became the country's president.

According to the local media, Nikolic's telephone has been tapped for some time. The Security and Information Agency informed Vucic that the interior ministry had issued an instruction three days ago that his phone be tapped.

The Serbian national broadcaster said that the order for monitoring Vucic's telephone conversations was issued at the request of "interest groups" and with the assistance of someone from the top-ranking police officials.