The UK's parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has postponed questioning security service MI5, secret intelligence service MI6 and eavesdropping agency GCHQ in front of the television cameras this week to further investigate the issue.
"All of us in senior positions across government have urged the intelligence agencies to account for themselves because that is what accountability is all about to the ISC," said Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in reference to the questioning which was planned on Thursday.
The report claimed that a range of spying methods were used against Indian and other diplomatic posts in the US, deploying everything from bugs implanted in electronic communications gear to taps into cables and the collection of transmissions with specialised antennae.
The UK's ISC has said nothing on the string of revelations flowing from documents released by US analyst- turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden since it issued a one-line sentence a month ago saying it was waiting for a report from the intelligence agencies on Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
The Obama Administration has warned countries not to give asylum to Snowden arguing that he is wanted in the US on charges of espionage and leaking classified information.
An apparent arrangement between the NSA and GCHQ was among documents leaked by Snowden, sparking fierce debate on both sides of the Atlantic about the acceptable limits of state snooping.
They also appear to show that GCHQ is able to tap into fibre-optic cables carrying huge amounts of internet and communications data and store it for up to 30 days under an operation codenamed Tempora.