Britain's best-selling newspaper may become embroiled in the phone- hacking cases announced this week.

In a potential public relations setback for Rupert Murdoch's News International, one of the charges against his former protégé Rebekah Brooks covers the period when she was editing The Sun.

Mrs Brooks, a former editor of the News of the World, ex-news editor Greg Miskiw and Glenn Mulcaire, a private detective, are charged with plotting to hack the phone of the trade union leader Andy Gilchrist. The period covered by the charges is 3 December 2002 to 22 January 2003.

Mrs Brooks was promoted to the helm of The Sun in early 2003 and her first day as editor of the daily paper was 14 January that year. Six days later, The Sun published a story about the private life of Mr Gilchrist who, as general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, was leading a national strike.