THE Department of Finance has denied claims made in yesterday's Daily Telegraph newspaper that the Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, was mocked by City of London investors during a conference call.

The British paper claimed that the call on Friday between hundreds of investors descended into farce with some investors heckling Lenihan and even making "chimp sounds" as the minister spoke on the call, hosted by Citigroup.

A spokesman for Lenihan said: "The story is inaccurate," and "The Telegraph clearly did not listen to the call... a number of media organisations were on the call. None offered a similar analysis to the Telegraph, which was not on the call.

"At the end of the call, spreads on Irish bonds narrowed, which indicated that the 200 investors on the call were reassured. The minister was not interrupted as reported by the Telegraph. There was no heckling; indeed participants congratulated the minister and the NTMA [National Treasury Management Agency]."

The Telegraph story claimed Lenihan had been speaking for less than two minutes on Friday before a mistake by Citigroup meant that the bank's clients were all able to be heard on the line. After one participant said: "This is the worst conference call ever," officials reportedly shut the call down and it was restarted 20 minutes later.

Lenihan's spokesman said: "There were no technical errors at our end. It is the case that Citi, which organised the call, had difficulties with the line and the call start was delayed."

There is a feeling within the Department of Finance that the Telegraph has been unfairly biased against Ireland in its covering of the financial crisis.