The row between Bob Geldof and the BBC escalated into a diplomatic dispute yesterday as the Ethiopian ambassador called for an apology from the World Service after it reported claims that aid money meant for famine victims had been spent on weapons.

Peter Horrocks, director of the World Service, has said he fully supports the report, which featured one former Ethiopian rebel saying 95% of the money that flowed into famine-hit Tigray in 1985 was spent by the TPLF militia on guns.

A second man claimed that the TPLF (Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, now the ruling party of prime minister Meles Zenawi) had made a fortune selling sand disguised as grain to the aid agencies.

Live Aid founder Geldof and other leading charities have also demanded that the BBC retract the claims and have called for its reporter, Martin Plaut, to be fired.

Now ambassador Berhanu Kebede has told the Observer that he expects a full apology from the BBC, which has "destroyed its credibility in Africa".

"Frankly, it's a ridiculous report. They have not looked at this person they interviewed, who had left the TPLF before 1985. Anyone knows that a liberation movement depends on the support of the people to win. How could they starve their people or snatch bread from their mouths?

"To question the integrity of organisations like Band Aid, the Red Cross, Christian Aid, it is laughable. If the BBC want to investigate something from 25 years ago, they should have talked to a lot more people who were there.

"In Ethiopia, people on both sides laugh at this idea. They know it would have been a suicide mission to divert the aid money and let people starve; it makes no sense and it is unacceptable. For the BBC's own credibility, it has to apologise for this disgrace."

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