Former Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie is suing the publisher of now-defunct News of the World and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire over alleged hacking of her phone, according to her lawyer Graham Atkins.

Mulcaire was jailed in 2007 for intercepting voicemails.

Atkins, of Atkins Thompson Solicitors, said, in a statement on the law firm's website:

I can confirm that we have issued a claim on behalf of Cherie Blair in relation to the unlawful interception of her voicemails. I will not be commenting any further at this time.

Blair, who left Downing Street in 2007 at the end of her husband's tenure as prime minister, filed a writ at London's High Court yesterday.

News Corporation has already settled hacking claims by former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Tony Blair's former press chief, Alastair Campbell.

Rupert Murdoch is launching the Sun on Sunday, a weekly paper that fills the slot left vacant when News of the World was shut down, this coming Sunday.